Copper Souls & Bleeding Hearts
by elyse.hyland
Summary: "A small chitter tempted Ally to crouch back down and a gasp caught in her throat as she looked into the copper eyes staring back at her." She's clumsy, shy and unable to look anyone in the eye but Ally is determined to work on the geneticist's team at Jurassic World. But when she finds the hatching eggs of a strange new dinosaur Ally's job becomes harder than she had ever imagine.
1. Introduction

"A small chitter tempted Ally to crouch back down and a gasp caught in her throat as she looked into the copper eyes staring back at her."

She's clumsy, shy and unable to look anyone in the eye but Ally is determined to work on the geneticist's team at Jurassic World. But when she finds the hatching eggs of a strange new dinosaur Ally's job becomes harder than she had ever imagined.

This story is set in 2010, five years before the events of Jurassic World where the Indominus Rex escapes and is very much an AU in that that event never comes to pass. (or maybe it still will, who knows)

Including Owen and the Raptor Squad, Clare, Masrani, Vic (the squeezball), Barry, the Indominus and many OC's (because not many of the other park rangers are named).

This is my first Jurassic World fanfiction and my first fanfiction on and I hope you like it, feel free to comment if you find any mistakes or spelling errors and I'll fix them up pronto.

(Sorry about the slow intro by the way, it'll pick up in a bit)

 **Warning:** Future chapters  will contain mentions of past assault and abuse (mental, physical and sexual), Ally hasn't had a happy past and her personality is derived from traumatic experiences, she may not seem like she has much of a personality but it's more the fact that she buries it down, "calm and simple" is her mantra for everything in life because it helps her stop from feeling out of control and having anxiety attacks.


	2. New Beginnings

"Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You're off to Great Places!

You're off and away!" Dr Zeus

 _Fire flicks in front of her face and licks at her toes, the lighter tumbles out of her hands, black dogs growl in the flames and her arm begins to burn. She twists and turns but the fire stretches larger into a mountainous man and she opens her mouth to scream-_

'Excuse me! Miss!'

Allison jerked up out of her seat and almost bashed heads with the man leaning over her, she looked around wildly, her blue eyes clouded with confusion.

'Miss are you alright?' the man asked cautiously, 'you were um…'

Allison blushed red and began to stammer out an apology to the man and staring people around her, wishing nothing more than to sink into the chair she was sitting in and disappear. She rubbed her eyes carefully so that she wouldn't smudge her make up and stood up to slink to the other side of the boat.

A boat that she was having second thoughts of being on.

When her resume to join Jurassic's World geneticist team had been accepted Allison had been overwhelmed, a chance to leave America behind for a green land full of dinosaurs had been her dream since seeing the ad for the opening park eight years ago and she'd been determined ever since to make it past the gates.

Now if she could just be as determined that she wouldn't stuff up meeting her new bosses, but Allison didn't have much hope for that. She tended to stutter and turn into a tomato just from being in front of someone and eye contact was as non existent as a unicorn in her vocabulary.

Allison leaned against the railing of the back of the boat where it was emptier and sighed, a blush still lining her cheeks and she gave a groan at her embarrassment. She ran a hand through her dark brown hair and flinched as the dream flickered in front of her eyes.

She hated that dream.

An hour later and a clamor at the front of the boat alerted Allison that they were nearly at Isla Nublar, the large island that Jurassic World (and it's far less successful predecessor Jurassic Park) were built on. She waited nervously for her luggage to be unloaded and sighed at the idea of needing to buy clothes and other things for her new apartment seeing as how the boat had a weight limit.

The majority of employees at Jurassic Park had apartments in the dormitories of the park seeing how a long boat ride to and from work everyday was impractical, employees tended to be housed in pairs and Allison prayed to whatever deity was listening that her roommate would be pleasant.

After taking the monorail to the main area of the island and dragging her bursting suitcases behind her she looked at the map she had been sent in the mail, thankful she hadn't lost it, and after a few wrong turns began the walk to the Innovation Center where she would meet her new bosses.

The streets around Allison were insanely busy with kids running everywhere and parents running after kids and she was knocked into more than once by someone who either didn't notice or didn't care enough to apologize, and ended up dropping her map, now ripped and dusty from people walking over it. She made it into the Innovation Center, spent five minutes wondering why she kept taking wrong turns before figuring out she'd put her map upside down, shrieked after a hologram of what looked like an oversized frilled neck lizard shot up in front of her and been snarled at by three different sleep deprived parents for blocking the view of something or another and with a frustrated sigh from walking in literal circles had accidentAllison bashed her head against one of the cement columns.

Thankfully one of the nearby security guards had asked through his laughter if there was anything he could help her with.

'I'll take it you're new here then miss?' The guard said through a thick Irish accent.

'Y-yeah' Allison stuttered and hoped that she didn't have a bruise on her forehead now.

'Don't worry, there's no mark.' He chuckled at her obvious distress and swiped his card to open the doors of the elevator.

The dark haired girl sighed in relief and wiped her sweating palms on her business skirt wishing it was a pair of jeans instead. Pretty blouses and pencil skirts weren't really her style but at least she'd met someone on the Island so far that was nice.

" _Confidence Allison, be confident and ask him a question,"_ Allison thought desperately, _"before the silence becomes awkward."_

'Um… I like your beard.'

The guard turned to look at her curiously.

'Thank you,' he chuckled awkwardly, 'my wife doesn't like it.'

'Oh.' Was all Allison could say, cringing internAllison.

The rest of the elevator ride was silent and still on the outside but inside Allison's head was a flurry of movement as she bashed her head against an imaginary wall and wailed why she couldn't she just make a normal conversation.

The door opened and Allison rushed out calling a thank you over her shoulder to the guard and nearly slipping over on the smooth flooring.

After making sure she was alone Allison looked around her, she was in a long hallway with cream walls and dark wood floors, photos of important personal and benefactors lined the walls and doors off to the sides had name plaques of various people on them with a staircase at the end leading up.

" _Dr Henry Wu, Dr Henry Wu"_

Unable to find his name on the plaques downstairs she traveled up, the area was much the same except the offices were larger and fancier, up one more flight of stairs and Allison was pretty sure she was in the right place. A security guard asked her what she was doing and after managing to stutter out she was meant to be meeting Dr Wu he pointed her to the third last office.

She knocked on the door nervously only to find it empty and was torn between breathing a sigh of relief and screaming from anticipation.

* * *

Owen Grady was going to die, he'd been working in this company since it had opened in 2005 and they had brought him in to research raptors, and now he was going to die, that was five years of loyal work and now he was going to be skinned alive by the Demon Lady.

Ungrateful little-

Okay so maybe he hadn't always been the most energetic employee but he'd done his work well and on time back when it was just research of the Raptors on Isla Sorna but now that he'd accepted the position of becoming a handler for the Park's newest addition he'd been flooded by both parenting duties and paper work that included weekly detailed updates that he had made the mistake of letting pile up and run overdue.

" _I can't really complain about my girl though."_ Owen smiled to himself and couldn't help but melt a little thinking about the snoozing creature he had left back in the Carnivore Nursery after giving them their afternoon feed.

Owen jogged up the stairs to where the Head Offices were and paused seeing a woman standing awkwardly at Wu's door.

He grinned and strolled over, the Demon Lady could wait.

'So,' grinned Owen leaning on the wall in front of her, 'do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?' He turned his head to look at the girl cheekily and felt the smile drip off his face as he looked at the clearly startled and obviously young girl and laughed nervously.

'I… did not realize how young you were,' Owen scratched his head, 'sorry are you here visiting a family member?'

The girl stared at him like a deer in headlights before slowly shaking her head. Owen furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

'Well then you shouldn't really be back here Kid.'

Now it was her turn to look confused and again she shook her head and pointed at Wu's door before looking at her feet and mumbling something.

'What's wrong Kid, cat got your tongue?' He winked and the girl blushed bright red and began to stumble along some kind of sentence that he couldn't catch a word of and he took the time to actuAllison look at the girl in front of him.

She had dark brown hair in loose curls around her shoulders and muddy blue eyes, her nose was smallish and slightly turned up like an elf (or a pig) and she had freckles running rampant over her nose and cheeks. She definitely wasn't the girl next door type and he got more of the "glasses and braces in middle school but grew out of it after puberty" kind of vibe out of her.

And five years of reading the body language of animals and people for a living could tell Owen in an instant that she was uncomfortable in the clothes she was wearing, dark blue pencil skirt, a floaty cream blouse and high heels. Owen could bet she'd look one hundred times better in old jeans, sturdy boots and an old shirt.

" _Or your shirt,"_ Owen thought to himself, _"wait no she's a kid, shut up."_

The lack of sound made Owen zone back in to the real world as he realized he'd been staring at her for way to long to be normal and the girl had resumed staring at her feet.

He sighed softly and went to say something to assure her that he didn't bite when the clacking of heels began to echo along the hallway and Owen paled.

'Mr Grady,' Claire Dearing called out, 'I hope you aren't harassing that girl.'

Owen scoffed and rolled his eyes, 'I wasn't.'

Claire waited for him to elaborate but he just leaned against the wall and began to whistle. Claire huffed and turned to the girl.

'I am going to assume you're the new geneticist here to meet Dr Wu?' Claire asked not unkindly.

After a small nod Claire told the girl he should be here soon and that she was free to go in the room and sit down while she waited before motioning for Mr Grady to follow her.

Owen gave a sigh of relief as he sank into the comfy leather of her guest chair

'ahh, that feels good,' he sighed closing his eyes and Claire glared at him.

'Mr Grady-'

'Owen,' he interrupted, 'Mr Grady makes me feel so old.'

'Well _Mr Grady,_ ' Claire hissed ignoring his irritated expression, 'you are nearly thirty so maybe you should start acting less like a _child_.'

'Hey just because I can have a little fun unlike some people in this room doesn't mean I'm a child,' Owen defended. 'I'll have you know that I'm a proud papa-bear now.'

Claire raised a perfectly arched eyebrow feeling very unimpressed where as Owen just smiled proudly.

'Mr Grady, this is a work zone and while it's nice that you've finally found your own kind in amongst oversized lizards your work should be coming first. That means that your paperwork should be filled in on time, your weekly reports should be handed in on time, your work schedule should match the printed time table you were given and not just start from whatever time you wake up at and most off all your updates of how Asset Twelve are coming along shouldn't just be videos of it sleeping or playing with a shoelace!'

The red haired woman stood up abruptly, 'you will have every last missing piece of paperwork completed and on my desk by tomorrow evening and your schedule sorted out by tomorrow or so help me they won't find your body until maintenance digs up your bones in the Suchomimus paddock during next cleaning period.'

Owen grinned, gave a mock salute and yelled "Yes Sir" before Claire yelled for him to get out of her office.

Deciding to take the safe path for once Owen quickly left before she threw something at him and ran to Wu's office where the Head Geneticist was interviewing the Kid.

'Hey newbie!' He called through his laughter, 'Good luck with the Demon Lady.' He winked at her before yelling out in pain and, ducking a second book thrown at his head by Clare, ran back down the stairs.

'Miss Princeton?' Dr Wu coughed gently and Allison's eyes flicked from the now empty doorway to the doctor in an instant.

'As you should be aware, the work you will be doing here will be involved in the creation of dinosaurs to be used in the Park's attractions but at the moment, and until we can determine just how much you live up to your credits, you will be working as an assistant for the geneticists here.'

He waited for a nod before continuing and pushing a pile towards her.

'Your apartment is located in Dorm 2, room 13, another employee lives there already so please try and get along with them because the Park does not have time to resolve petty domestic issues. In that pile is your key card and identification, please don't lose either, the key card will open any and all doors you have authority to be in, there's a copy of your timetable there too and regulations require that you are allowed the rest of today and tomorrow to get situated and familiar with your surroundings, meaning that you will have no excuse to be late for work, do you understand?'

Allison collected the pile nodding again and Henry sighed.

'I do prefer verbal communication or is that above your skill set?'

Allison went bright red and took a deep breath before stating an audible "No" and Henry supposed that was the best he was going to get today, he dismissed her with a wave of his hand and she took the opportunity to run from the room only to slink back in awkwardly a moment later to grab her suitcase.

She could have cried from relief as she left the room and went back to the elevator, folding the schedule and putting it in a side pocket of her suitcase and putting the identification and key cards around her neck, she sighed in relief when the key worked with the elevator.

" _At least something is going right today."_

She shyly waved to the Security Guard from before and mouthed a thank you and he grinned and waved back making Allison feel a little bit better, at least he didn't think she was so weird that he wouldn't wave back.

She found the Dormitories, walked into One instead of Two, walked out when she realized why the men in the Lobby were looking at her weirdly and spent five minutes working up the courage in front of room 13 to knock before the door opened and the woman standing in the frame with bright scarlet dyed hair raised her eyebrows.

'Can I help you?'

Allison stuttered uselessly for a moment before just showing the intimidating woman her identification card. The scarlet woman looked between the card and Allison for what felt like years before grinning and dragging her inside, slamming and locking the door behind her.

'Sorry about that, I was pretty sure that Bridget was going to try and pull a prank on me.'

Allison could only watch wordlessly as the woman continued to do up locks, six of them in total, before turning around and grabbing her identification.

'So… Allison Princeton, welcome to your new home!' She said cheerfully and skipped over to a door and tapping it. 'This is yours, the other is obviously mine, bathroom's the door on the other side of the room and we share it with next door, chuck your stuff in your room and then we can talk out the details.

With a hesitant nod Allison gave the main room one last look before opening the door to her room, the door closest to the kitchen. The main room had been cream walls and dark wood floors like the hallway of the offices, the bedroom doors took up the right side wall, a small kitchen took up the back wall and in between the bathroom door and the kitchen was a small TV and an old ripped up armchair. A battered table stood in the middle of the room and was scattered with art supplies and covered in paint splatters, a large cork board hung on the wall between the door bedroom doors with roughly tacked up notes, messages and ideas, colorful magnets covered the fridge door and a number of bright abstract canvases hung on the walls while a skylight gave natural light

Allison's room was simply empty and she silently celebrated in relief, out there was so much color and chaos that she didn't know where to look, her room was the same basic color scheme with a single bed and basic white sheets in the center of the back wall with a bedside table either side. It was a small room with a window on the left wall which she opened to let fresh air in and a built in wardrobe on the right.

The dorms themselves were a sprawling mess. The two of them, a male (Dorm One) and a female (Dorm Two) had been originally built for the old Jurassic Park and the new management had decided to repair and keep building on top of the originals whenever there was an influx of staff. With the park currently employing over sixty people the end results were creations that reminded her slightly of The Burrow from Harry Potter

She closed her door quietly and went back to the scarlet woman who had stuck a paintbrush in her mouth while she frowned and twisted a canvas this way and that.

'Mm! Sho yourf fwee few fecorate yourf froom-' she spat out the paintbrush, 'however you want, there are stores around where you can buy basic clothing or house holdy things but if you want a wider range of stuff then on-line shopping's your best way to go, same for food, there's a basic supermarket but if you're like Hailey who seems to need "Foie Gras",' she mocked in a pompous accent 'or whatever fancy stuff it is on a regular basis then you'll have to get it delivered yourself. So yeah just feel free to put your mark on things around here.'

She turned back to her painting and rubbed under her eye leaving a bright turquoise streak that a braver person than Allison would have pointed out. She walked back to her room and sat on the edge of the bed, looking around.

She would keep it simple. Plain whites or blacks, things that made order and sense, clean walls and floors. She could live with the chaos of the living room so long as hers remained plain.

She began to unpack what little she had, bed covers, changes of clothes, folders for her work, a pencil case, diary, an alarm clock, a lamp, shoes, toiletries, laptop and charger and a few books.

She made the bed, put clothes and shoes in the wardrobe, set up her alarm and lamp on one bedside table and her laptop on the other, and the rest in the drawers. She put her toiletries in the corner of a shelf in the bathroom before lying down on her bed.

Simple and calm, simple and calm, the room was simple and calm.

So why was it that a part of her, a very tiny, small, all most non existent, part of her, longed for the bright colors and chaos just on the other side of her door?


	3. First Day

The two days passed quickly for Allison who struggled not only with her poor sense of direction around the island but also with the large amount of people on it every day.

The Scarlet Lady seemed to love facts as much as she loved her brightly colored art and was constantly rattling them off every time she saw Allison.

According to her, the park was split into two sides: Attractions and Restricted, The Attraction side held eight attractions; the Bamboo Forest, Botanical Gardens, Hammond Creation Lab, Innovation Center, the Aquarium, T. Rex Kingdom, Cretaceous Cruise and the GTG.

GTG stood for Gyrospheres, Triceratops, Gallimimus and was the large stretch of grasslands where the Triceratops Territory and Gallimimus Valley were used by the Gyrospheres.

There were currently seventeen dinosaurs species living on the island and the vast majority lived in their attraction areas with paddocks over in the Restricted side for sick, injured or young animals. There was over sixty handlers between the seventeen species, some requiring more personal than others.

The Restricted side of the island held the paddocks for different species as well as the employee dorms and another dorm for security and was cut off from the attractions by a large barrier.

Aside from the Dorms, some employees, with permission from the owner Mr Masrani, had built properties on the restricted side, Mr Masrani, Miss Dearing, Dr Wu were some of the few.

Another was someone named Owen who was, according to the Scarlet Lady, hot and friendly but trouble for a newbie like her. He worked with the parks newest addition, the Velociraptor who was only three weeks old, in the Carnivores Nursery on the Restricted side. He had resided in Dorm One when he first came to Jurassic World to help them learn about the Raptors they transported over from Isla Sorna but after an altercation with another employee last month he had been requested to find a new point of residency. Now he lived on the coast of the island in a bungalow he'd built himself and toed the lines constantly with an on-going Prank War.

Allison, in between the constant facts and gossip, kept very much to herself. She stayed in her room for most of the time studying the map and her battered genetics textbooks, other than that she walked the route to the lab so that she would know it and traveled to the Attraction side to buy a few more clothes and some food and basic supplies.

She couldn't afford a desk yet and finished the remainders of her paper work sitting awkwardly on the edge of her bed to use the bedside table as a surface.

She could already tell that a few people had started talking about her and one of the girls next door had entered the bathroom while she was there and audibly gasped before slamming the door and giggling loudly to her roommate on the other side, by the time they had entered the bathroom to introduce themselves to her, Allison had already slipped away to her room.

And now it was Wednesday, her first day of work and Allison was freaking out. She'd felt too sick to eat anything except for a few bites of toast she'd stuffed down her throat and had spent most of the time she had making sure she looked appropriate. Her hair was in a high ponytail and she'd straightened the life out of it, her make up was simple but perfect and she'd redone her eyeliner four times to make sure of that. Her skirt and blouse were clean and crease free, her shoes shined and a bag packed with her folders and a neatly tubbed lunch were all prepared and now all she had to do was-

 _'Out of my way,' he growled, 'before you make me really angry.'_

 _The metal of the knife pressed coldly against her stomach and she swallowed in fear before stepping away from his red, angry face. He slammed the door behind him and she started to shake. She hadn't been payed and now she knew she'd pay for it tonight in blood._

 _She looked towards the motel door and knew she had to try one last time, with sore legs she stumbled towards the exit, pulling it open and holding back tears, she was nearly out, nearly safe, nearly-_

'Hey Allison, you ready to go?' The Scarlet Lady's face popped up in front of hers and Allison shrieked, stumbling backwards.

'Whoa! Sorry!' the Scarlet Lady said reaching out to steady her and frowning slightly when Allison shook her hands off. 'You weren't answering when I called out to you and I thought-'

Her voice trailed off as she looked around Allison's room.

'Wow. I forgot how bleak the rooms are at first.' She turned to grin at Allison, 'We can fix that up though, we could order some paint and I could help you do the walls and if you need some help I could chip in some cash for bed sheets that are less, you know… boring.'

Allison stared firmly at her toes and the Scarlet Lady seemed to wilt a little bit.

'Okay well… uh… we should probably get going then,' she said awkwardly, 'y'know, before we're late and all.'

Allison nodded and picked up her bag before walking past her roommate and heading towards the apartment door.

The walk to the labs was fifteen minutes and the Scarlet Lady had to go on ahead to the Nurseries.

The lab was a large, gray, three story building that probably shouldn't have made Allison as scared as she was. She made her way past a line of desks, some with people and some without, towards the elevator where she meekly showed the guard ID and made her way upstairs.

On the second floor was equipment and on the third floor was room after room of closed doors. A guard directed her to the fourth last room of the hallway and Allison wanted to cry and curl up under a large doona as she opened the door.

'Excuse me…?' Allison asked quietly as she peaked inside the room and a pair of green eyes snapped up to meet hers.

'Ah, you're the new geneticist right?' The man grinned. 'I'm Doctor Cook or, as most of the workers around here call me, Cookie.' He laughed before putting down his clipboard and extending his hand.

'Feel free to call me Ryan though.' He grinned.

Ryan's accent was clearly British although it was marred slightly from living in America, he was handsome in a boyish sort of way with ruffled brown hair and a bright smile, he was the kind of person who made people relax just by looking at them and Allison breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

Allison's brain jerked her back to the present as she realized that he was still holding out his hand and the silence was becoming awkward. She quickly grabbed his hand and shook it and he laughed again although this time Allison was pretty sure it was at her.

'So your name was… Alyssa? Alyssa Princeton?'

Allison smiled awkwardly, too shy to correct him and more willing to be called the wrong name for the rest of her life than to open her mouth but Ryan must have seen her small grimace because he scratched his head.'

'No that's not right is it? What was your name?'

Her tongue caught in her throat and she accidentally made a loud gurgle before managing to spit out her name. Ryan looked at her in surprise for a moment before breaking down into laughter.

'Henry said you were shy but I didn't think it was this bad.' He stuffed his fist in his mouth trying to stop the laughter and Allison turned bright red, seriously considering getting back on the boat and leaving right that minute.

He giggled one last time before shaking his head and apologizing.

'Sorry that was mean, I shouldn't have laughed.' He smiled at her kindly, 'So, Allison Princeton, welcome to the Laboratory of Jurassic World.'

Allison avoided his eyes and gripped onto the strap of her bag until her fingers felt like they'd break and Ryan winced.

'Hey I really am sorry about laughing.' He scratched at his jaw thoughtfully for a moment before his eyes lit up in excitement.

'How about I make it up to you? Come take a look at this!'

He pulled her gently over to the large table in the center at the room. A wall of frosted glass lined the edges with an incubator hanging over the top and in the middle, in a mess of straw and leaves, sat five large, cream colored eggs. Allison looked at them amazed, she had seen ads for Jurassic World since she was twelve, it was what had sparked her interest in genetics and her dream to become one but now she was seeing the real thing in person and Allison didn't know if she'd ever been happier.

'They were meant to hatch five days ago and three of them only started tapping the sides this morning so we're getting a little worried.' Ryan spoke softly as one of the eggs gave a small wiggle and then nearly tipped over with the strength of the next one.

Suddenly a small crack appeared in the surface of the shell and Allison and Ryan both gave a small cry of delight.

'She's pipped!' He whispered excitedly and Allison turned to him confusedly.

'Pipped?' She asked curiously and Ryan nodded.

'Yeah that's what it's called when they first break the eggs surface.'

Allison smiled excitedly, 'So how long until it comes out?'

'Don't know, sometimes it can take an entire day or even longer, it must be really tiring for the poor things though because they usually take breaks.'

'Do you think-'

The sound of the door opening made both Ryan and Allison jump in surprise and Doctor Wu looked at them derisively.

'If you two are done whispering like school girls then maybe we could actually get some work done around here Dr Cook?'

The comment was scathing and it was obvious beyond belief that Dr Wu disliked the man but Ryan simply laughed and went back to his clipboard leaving Allison to face the Asian man.

'Princeton you're the intern here so make yourself useful and get me the three blue folders from my office-'

'All of your folders are blue.'

'After that you can help Mr Collin's complete his paperwork-'

'You're going to make her work with that old pervert for the whole day?'

'And then you can sweep all the rooms, ask the cleaners where the brooms are-'

'Why the hell are you making her sweep room when the cleaners are here?'

'Do you mind?' Wu growled at Ryan who looked up cheekily from his clipboard.

'Not at all, how about you?' Wu opened his mouth to yell at him but Ryan just shook his head.

'Oh come on Henry, you've never been this hard on any of the other newbies, cut her some slack she's practically still a kid.'

'That's exactly the point!' Snapped Wu, I have hand picked my team from among the brightest scientists in and out of America, I've had a hand in choosing every worker inside this lab and now this little girl shows up out of the blue and Masrani demands I let her work here! Babbling on about how "he has a good feeling about this" and that "she's the best of her year", sounded like something out of Harry Potter for Gods sake.'

'So you're having a temper tantrum because you think she might be smarter than you.' the brunette scientist remarked dryly.

Dr Wu's head snapped up and glared murderously at Ryan.

'I'm warning you Dr Cook, you may have Masrani on your side but don't you think for one second-'

'ohhh,' Dr Cook grinned, 'so is that why you don't like Allison, does she remind you too much of me?'

Dr Wu looked like he wanted to murder his colleague and Allison wished she could just vanish into the background of the plain white walls.

'Fine,' Wu spat, 'you can watch the girl, but if she stuffs up anything, and I mean anything, it'll be your head on the line do you hear me?'

Ryan gave a military solute to Wu's disgust and he span on his heel and slammed the door behind him. Ryan turned to Allison and apologized about Wu's rudeness before turning back to the clipboard.

'Right, I do actually need you to do something for me Allison, everyone else is really busy at the moment on one of Mr Masrani's projects so no ones really free and neither Yvaine or her second, Nathan, have been answering their com links this morning and Yvaine needs to get here if this little guy's started pipping.'

He saw her nod hesitantly and laughed softly.

'Yeah apparently you haven't really met with anyone have you? Listen, just go to the GTG nursery, they should be there at this time checking on the littlies, call out their names and they'll answer.'

Allison wanted to laugh hysterically, _just_ call out their names, in front of other people, with her mouth, _her_. But Ryan was nice, and he'd defended her against Dr Wu, Allison really didn't want to disappoint him so with a brave nod and a mumbled goodbye Allison left the room after one more look at the crack lining the egg.

The Nursery's were harder to find than the Lab and Allison's heels were killing her by the time she got there.

There were three nurseries all together that surrounded a large clearing the size of three football ovals, the GTG Nursery, the Cretaceous Nursery, and lastly the Carnivore Nursery which was positioned further away from the others. In the middle of the clearing there was a number of paddocks for animals to integrate the animals together in preparation for being released into their attractions.

There were six or seven people around as far as Allison could see and they were mostly inside or gathered around one of the high metal fences and Allison crept over to see if it had any Triceratops inside.

A blonde woman in the corner of the paddock was crouching down beside a greyish colored dinosaur the size of an American bulldog and a man was pulling a needle out of it's shoulder. The man had a grave face as he said something to the woman before shaking his head, the woman buried her face in her hands and another man came over to comfort her.

'Do you know what's happened?' One of the watchers asked.

'No but this is the second baby now, and you heard about Old Sue just yesterday right?' His friend replied.

'What? No, what happened to Old Sue?'

'They found her lying on the edge of the herd grounds, Gussy said she'd been dead since early morning.'

The first man shook his head, 'I get that it's only been Triceratops so far but I'm worried about the rest of the GTG animals, what if it's contagious?'

'I think the board is meeting up about a possible quarantine,' his friend shrugged, 'other than that I don't have a clue.'

Allison crept closer to the fence and peeked over the top, she could see the Triceratops now, it's eyes were glassy and there was blood splattered on the grass by its head, the other Triceratops had been herded inside the Nursery and Allison tentatively tapped a curly haired brunette with glasses next to her.

'Excuse me…' She mumbled and looked at her shoes as the woman turned her head. 'Are either of those people Nathan or Yvaine?'

'Nathan or Yvaine?' The woman said, 'Yeah that's them in the paddock there. Hey are you one of them Lab Rats cause you don't look like a handler.'

Allison nodded hesitantly. 'Dr Ryan asked me to get them, the T-triceratops have started pipping.'

The brunette scowled at her, 'Right, because who cares if the babies die, you can just cook up some replacements in your fancy kitchen can't you.'

Allison flinched at the woman's hateful tone as she began to rant at her about about these were living breathing creatures and not just sacks of money laying around for them to pick at and-

'Geez Marice do you ever shut up?' A voice mused behind her and Allison spun around, nearly tripping over her own feet, and came face to face with the man from outside Wu's office. He spared a glance at her before firmly crossing his arms and leaning against the fence.

'She's a Lab Rat, she gets told to do something and she does it, that's her job, just like your job is cleaning out the Baryonyx' paddock and not critiquing other people, hm?'

He raised his eyebrows at her and Marice turned bright red, although Allison had a feeling it wasn't just from being called out in front of a large group of people. The man was handsome and not in the clean high school prep way, he was more rough with stubble lining his chin and eyes that studied your every move.

Marice scoffed and walked away as Grady turned to Allison, eyeing her up and down as if to make sure she was alright, before scratching his nose and leaving a smudge of dirt behind.

'So what are you doing out here Kid, shouldn't you be behind a desk?'

Allison didn't know whether to look at her shoes or the dirt smudged on his nose that was annoying her so in the end she grasped the gate firmly, if a bit desperately, and called out the names of the Triceratops Handlers loudly to both her surprise and the amusement of Grady.

The man and woman looked up at her and Allison wanted to duck behind the fence and turn invisible. Grady pointed to the small girl next to him and called out.

'She needs to talk to you about something.'

Nathan said something to Yvaine and rubbed her shoulder reassuringly before jogging over to the fence.

'Hey Owen,' Nathan greeted the man, 'This your niece or something?'

'No, she's the new Lab Rat.' Owen laughed, 'She needs you for something.'

The two men turned to Allison expectantly and she swore she felt herself die a little on the inside.

'Dr R-Ryan asked me to… uh… to ask you t-to uh…'

Nathan and Grady looked at her curiously before glancing at each other as if to ask "you understand?'.

'Did Cookie need you for something?' Owen asked and Nathans face lit up in realization.

'Has something finally happened with the Triceratops clutch?' He asked excitedly and Allison nodded.

'Th-they've p-pipped.' Allison smiled shyly. 'H-he asked me to get y-you or Y-Yvaine right away.'

Nathan grinned at her thankfully before turning and running back to Yvaine and explaining to her the good news, calling over his shoulder that they'd be there soon and that it was nice to finally meet her.

Allison nodded and headed back down to the labs, leaving Owen to stride after her.

'Hey Kid!' He called, catching her arm as she tripped over a pothole in the road. 'Whoa, whoa, whoa. You gotta be careful out here in those shoes Kid.'

Allison gave a nervous smile and made to keep walking but Owen pulled her to a stop and, gently but firmly, steered her around back towards the Nurseries.

'Don't be stupid, I'll give you a ride back to the Labs, I'm going there anyway.'

They reached one of the company quad bikes and Owen swung a leg over the seat before patting the seat behind him, gesturing for her to hop on and offering her a helmet.

'Hey Barry!' Owen called back towards the nursery, cupping his hands around his mouth, 'You okay checking on the Raptors until I get back?'

A black man looked up and grinned, white teeth bright against his dark skin, and made a shooing motion with his hands.

Owen turned back to Allison and raised his eyebrows as if to say "why are you still standing there?" and Allison quickly sat on the back of the quad, uncertain where and how to sit.

'You're gonna fall off like that,' the man scoffed and he squashed the helmet rather unceremoniously on her head, destroying her neat pony tail, he clipped it together and grabbed her hands.

'Right, hands are either on my waist,' He began, placing her hands just above his hips, 'or on my shoulders. Which one?'

'Shoulders.' Allison squeaked out and Owens eyes crinkled up in amusement before turning around and starting up the engine, forcing Allison to move closer so as not to fall off.

The ride back was far shorter on the quad and Allison had to admit that it was surprisingly fun, the air whipped her ponytail behind her and she would have rathered the helmet off and her hair out so that she could feel it better but she didn't dare take her hands off Owens shoulders.

They pulled into the driveway of the Lab and Allison stumbled off, forgetting about her heels and nearly face planting.

Owen helped her steady herself, 'You can't walk in those for crap, why're you wearing them?'

Allison nervously pointed to the Lab in explanation and struggled to take off the helmet before feeling her now messy hair in horror.

'Oh,' Owen chuckled as he watched her attempt to fix the ponytail, 'Sorry. Might want to dust off your skirt as well…'

Allison groaned and began to brush the dust off the back of her deep blue skirt before mumbling a thank you to Owen and hurrying towards the doors. She went to push them open but they wouldn't budge and it wasn't until a hand reached past her and pulled it open that Allison realized her mistake.

Face blushed bright red she mumbled another thank you and almost ran past Owen who was struggling to stop the laughter from bubbling past his lips.

He quietly followed her past the desks and all the way up to the third floor making Allison begin to panic as they walked along the empty hallway.

Eventually Allison span around to "bravely confront" Owen only to find him opening one of the doors on the right.

He raised an eyebrow at her as she slowly closed her mouth and quickly spun back around to continue to the room she had met Dr Ryan in before.

She closed the door behind her with a sigh of relief and Ryan looked up at her with a soft smile.

'Outside world is scary isn't it.' He teased her kindly. 'Did you find either of them?'

'Yes.' Allison nodded, walking cautiously over to the table in the middle. 'They'll be here in a bit.'

She smiled as she looked at the Triceratops eggs, one of which now had a very large and definitive crack running diagonally across it's surface.

She looked up in confusion as Ryan laughed softly.

'You didn't stutter,' He explained, 'I feel special.'

Allison blushed and ignored the doctors green eyes as she looked back at the eggs.

'Th-there was a problem at the um… Nurseries.' Allison spoke slowly, 'I think that's w-why they didn't, y-you know… uh…'

Ryan looked up concernedly, 'What problem? Did something happen with the Raptors?'

'N-no?' Allison shook her head forcefully. 'It was o-one of the b-baby Tricerat-tops.'

Allison gripped the top of the frosted glass wall tightly.

'Poor baby.' She whispered gently and Ryan obviously understood what had happened because he sighed and ran a head through his hair messily.

'A second baby died?' He asked softly and sighed again when Allison nodded.

'Somethings going on with the Triceratops lately. They've always been tricky breeders but only about a quarter of the last three clutches have hatched and now two babies have died, and poor Old Sue wasn't really _that_ old.' Ryan rambled before pausing and looking at her.

'Is Yvaine okay?'

Allison shrugged uncomfortably, she hadn't even spoken to the woman, she'd barely spoken to a tenth of the employees at the park, in fact she was pretty sure that she'd spoken to Ryan more than she'd spoken to her own roommate so…

The egg that was furthest along gave a dangerous wobble and Ryan gave an odd little dance before turning to her desperately.

'I'm so sorry to ask for another favor already but I was up all night and I downed an entire can of red bull this morning, do you mind if I duck off to the loo and you keep an eye on the eggs?'

Allison looked at him in surprise and began to stutter a halfhearted objection.

'Please Ally? I just can't leave them alone at this stage for legal reasons I promise they're not even close to hatching!' Begged Ryan.

It was the nickname that made Allison cave, mostly because she was too frozen to even respond to it and Ryan gave a rapid gush of thank you's before darting out the door and leaving Allison alone in the room with five dinosaur eggs.

She turned to the table slowly and leant over to get a closer look with a soft smile on her face.

'Allison,' she whispered, 'no one's called me Allison before.'

It felt silly to whisper to herself like this while hovering over a clutch of eggs that couldn't even begin to understand her but there was something about the name "Ally" that gave her a bubbly feeling in her chest and she couldn't stop her smile from blossoming into a wide grin.

'What do you guys think?' Allison whispered, 'Do you think Ally's a good na-'

A violent push knocked the cracked egg completely over, fracturing a large section of it, and Allison froze with her eyes wide as the creature inside stubbornly pushed through the remaining shell and, with an almost pop, it's head appeared on the other side and it's eyes blearily opened with a few blinks before staring her right in the eyes.

It was like a scene in a movie had been paused with neither Allison or the baby Triceratops moving an inch until the spell was broken by it making an indignant noise that sounded something in between a squaw and a moo and began to try and move closer to her, only being able to roll it's prison of shell closer to her inch by inch.

And as another egg began to twitch, the door behind her began to open and the baby Triceratops rolled towards her like some kind of demented bowling ball, Allison realized just how screwed she was.


	4. Wine, Juice, and a chance, O my

I'm going to be completely honest with you guys because anyone who's actually stuck around to read this thing deserves that much. A year ago now I lost a friend, she was someone I loved very much and writing was a hobby that we did together. Since then writing just felt all wrong and trying to do it felt like I was moving on and forgetting about her which I've realised is dumb af because if anything she'd be whipping me upside the head and telling me to finish the damn thing.

My uploading is going to be shitty and random because of year 12 but I am determined to keep going with it, so thank you to anyone who kept reading.

* * *

It was an oddly disturbing sight to have an egg rolling towards you while a head chirped, one that Allison was quickly saved from by a woman roughly pushing her out of the way.

'Shit,' she hissed and steadied the rolling egg with a hand before whirling around to look at Allison.

'Did it look at you?' The woman demanded and scowled when she could only stutter in response.

The woman, she realised, was Yvaine from the Triceratops Nursery, and the man who ran in after her was Nathan, gripping the edge of the glass like his life depended on it.

'Have they hatched?' He gasped for air, 'Please don't tell me they've hatched already.'

Allison shakily held up one finger before pointing it at the baby triceratops who was breaking out of it's makeshift prison.

'Did you make eye contact with it?' Yvaine demanded again.

'I'm s-so sorry,' Allison said softly.

Part of the debriefing she'd been given in preparation for this job had stressed repeatedly how crucial it was for the Trainers to be the first visual contact with their animal for the best chances of a strong imprint. A strong imprint meant the handlers would have better results when raising and caring for the animals even after entering the herds.

And she'd gone and screwed it up.

Yvaine pulled her hair in distress and Allison was surprised it didn't come out in clumps.

'It's alright Yvaine,' Nathan soothed, 'she didn't mean anything by it. I should have been more vigilant with the eggs.'

'We were losing Wort, Nathan, he needed you with him there.'

Allison picked herself off the ground slowly and wrung her hands together. What would happen to the Triceratops? What would happen to her? Doctor Wu had said if she'd screwed up even one thing today-, she gulped.

Ryan slid into the room hurriedly, black shoes squealing against the polished floors.

'Crap, they've hatched?' He asked, quickly walking to where the struggling baby was.

He examined the shell and carefully cracked a small part of the shell open farther, allowing the baby to fit a front leg through. It quickly made short work of the rest of its old home and Ryan motioned for Yvaine to rub it down before examining the remaining clutch.

'Are they alright?' Nathan was clearly nervous as his nails threatened to break through his heavily tanned skin.

'This one will be,' Ryan motioned to the other egg that was slowly beginning to crack, 'but the others-'

Ryan's movements faltered for a second on an egg. He slowly raised it up to the light of the incubator and turned it in his hands.

'This one… its detached from the membrane.' he sighed softly and set it down gently before reaching for another.

It was the same for a second egg and Nathan face was beginning to crumple in despair.

The third made Ryan break out into a huge grin and he motioned for them to come look. Under the strong light of the incubator the four of them could make out the silhouette of the triceratops knocking at the side of the egg shell.

Ryan placed back the egg and patted Nathan on the shoulder.

'I'm sorry about the other two, I really am,' the scientist sighed, 'and I promise we're doing everything we can to find out what's going on.'

'We know Cookie, thank you.' Yvaine tried to wipe the triceratops's back and huffed in frustration when it scuttled away from her, 'but why the hell was the newbie the only one watching the eggs?'

Bright scarlet spread across his face as he scratched at his chin.

'That was my fault,' he admitted, 'I needed the bathroom and I miscalculated how far along the egg was.'

'Well now we've got a triceratops who's going to want to stay with his mumma.'

Yvaine's huff was cut short by a sudden giggle breaking free from Cookie. A sly grin erupted over his face as he looked between her and Allison's confused faces.

'Don't stress Yvaine, this isn't the first time it's happened.' He casually flipped through the case file and began scribbling on something.

He flipped the file around to face them and Allison practically heard the blonde woman's jaw drop to the floor. She could hear Cookie explaining what they would have to do to make this work in that background but all she could focus on was the extravagant head of black curls that he'd drawn on Yvaine's personal picture.

* * *

Yvaine, in order to properly continue bonding with the baby triceratops, was currently dying her hair as close to Allison's brown as possible. A task that the bright blonde was extremely displeased about.

Well, she could safely say that Yvaine definitely hated her now.

She let out a sigh and thumped her head on her tiny desk feeling like she thoroughly deserved at least a moment of self pity.

Of course that would be the moment that Wu looked in and yelled at her for slacking off.

With a noise that startled her fellow workers she threw herself into her work. It was mostly just embarrassingly simple paperwork that a fifth grader could file but it was all she was going to be trusted with since Wu had found out about the incident.

She'd definitely rather be doing the work she'd trained for.

She could understand Doctor Wu's scepticism though. Allison had entered university at the age of sixteen and her first professor had honest to god laughed when he saw her. When they saw her they'd thought it was a joke and it was never until she'd "proved herself" multiple times to people that they believed her.

After that the names for her ranged from "child prodigy" to "freak", it didn't help that she was socially awkward and severely anxious. She'd hoped that university aged students would've been different from high school ones but the only difference was that at uni she didn't get drinks poured over her head and tripped over at lunchtime.

Regardless of whether she'd been believed or not, Allison had managed to get her doctorate in genetics, and her stellar grades and application had guaranteed her a position at the leading labs in the world. The ones that at this very moment in time were designing the genetic codes of dinosaurs.

The man she now knew as Mr Collin's rapped his knuckles on her desk and smiled greasily at her, his slicked back hair glistening under the fluorescent lights.

'Very sorry my dear but Doctor Wu has asked me to drop these off to you as well.' His smarmy smile made her feel like bugs were crawling down her back and she gave a jittery smile, meekly taking the gigantic armload of paperwork from him.

He gave her one last lingering smile before walking back to his desk as the office supervisor, a glorified secretary of Doctor Wu's, and Allison let her smile fade a little.

When would she get to do what she trained eight years for?

* * *

The next month wasn't hell per se but it came god damned close. Wu wouldn't even let her sniff anything close to associated with genetics, instead she worked 9-5 as a secretary for Wu's secretary.

'Neither of them even need a damn secretary.' Allison groaned and flopped onto the couch of her apartment. Something dug into her stomach and she dug yet another freaking paint brush out from underneath her before throwing it across the room with a huff, right as the front door opened.

Scarlet Lady's mouth formed an O as the brush clattered at her feet and her eyes flicked between it and Allison's guilty face. She scratched behind her ear before turning sharply and grabbing something out of the fridge and turning back to Allison.

'Look, I'm going to be honest with you, I'm an extrovert, like hella extroverted. My mum used to call me a chihuahua because I'm loud and never shut up.' She took a swig of what Allison was now realising was wine and pointed a finger at her.

'But you,' she began, 'you are an introvert, a blind man could see that, and a blind man could tell you that we probably aren't the best match in the world.'

'But, but,' the Scarlet Lady seemed to sink against the counter, 'I need people and people... don't really like me.'

The expression on her face was absolutely dismal. Like someone had taken a canvas she was working on and thrown it into the Aquarium. It disappeared the moment she shook her head though and she focused on Allison again, waving the wine bottle slightly.

'So you see, we both aren't good at people,' she grinned, 'so maybe we could try and- and work on it together?'

Her smile began to falter the longer the offer stood, the wine bottle waving less than it began to shake and Allison had the feeling this wasn't her first drink of the night.

 _The little girl stood in front of her, the colour purple bled under the sleeves pushed past her elbows._

 _'Maybe, just maybe,' she whispered, 'we can be friends.'_

 _Her eyes were cautious and hopeful at the same time as she grasped the girls hand. The girls at school had friendship bracelets, Allison knew their matching purple streaks were stronger._

She didn't remember standing up or walking over to the Scarlet Lady but she took the bottle out of the trembling girls hands and placed it on the counter.

'I prefer juice.' Allison confessed, her voice breaking the silence. 'I have a bottle in the fridge?'

A smile bloomed across the Scarlet Lady's face.

 _bloomed bruised battered born_

She nodded vigorously, hesitated for a moment in front of the wine before grabbing the juice out of the fridge, and sat on their couch.

 _vitals venoms victims vocals_

Allison took a deep breath, eyeing the wine and joining her, the girl flashing in front of her again and again and _again-_

 _lithe limp leper lost_

They began to talk.

* * *

Short chapter is short. A review has advised me that I need to move the story faster so I'm leaving this chapter like this so I can do that next chapter.

I'm just going to say real quick, I'm not asking for sympathy about my friend, I haven't told you guys this to get pity reads/reviews, I'm just explaining what's happened and I'm going to delete the note once I get a few more chapters in because hopefully by that time it'll have been read.

Thank you for reading xx


	5. Blame it on Cookie

Talking with the Scarlet Lady was tricky at first, Allison wasn't sure how much response she needed to give but she quickly figured out that the bright haired woman could comfortably hold the conversation herself so long as Allison provided at least non-verbal responses every now and again. And oddly enough, it was actually pretty soothing. She thought she'd struggle with the volume and speed but there was something about the quick voice and lively gestures that enraptured her. The whole situation quickly reminded her of that odd feeling she'd had when she'd first seen her plain room in comparison to the explosion of colour that was the apartment.

As the conversation topics had switched from her feud with some of the other girls in the building, to her art, to what dinosaurs she worked with at the park, it occurred to her that she'd never told Allison her name and finally, finally, Allison could stop thinking of her as the Scarlet Lady.

Billi Davey, her name was Billi Davey and the smile she gave her before going to bed had been everything.

The next morning she was worried that it would go back to being awkward but Billi had slipped back into the same role as last night and Allison had soon relaxed. Two mornings after she'd even chipped in her thoughts on the tea Billi had bought from the new vendor on Main Street. Five days after that they'd sat down and watched a film called American Ultra, and the day after _that_ Billi had given her some advice on Dr Wu.

'There's no reasoning with him,' Billi had warned, 'and don't try to suck up to him, I think it was the intern before you? She tried that and he made her life so miserable she quit within a week.'

She must have seen Allison gulp because she grinned and shook her head.

'You don't need to worry about that though, you're a hard worker Ally, keep at that and he'll respect you, maybe not like you, but he can do respect if you earn it.'

Whether it was the compliment, the nickname, or the vote of confidence, it had boosted Allison's mood 100% and she'd nodded fiercely. She could deal with Wu, he couldn't keep her on paperwork forever since she was working through it faster than he could supply, and finally she'd get to code. That would be a massive relief. No matter what unpredictable thing humans chucked at her, she could always count on code to stay the same.

'Here.' A voice announced sharply, a bag of clothes dropping onto the keyboard in front of her and blowing paperwork to the floor.

Looking up with wide eyes Allison found Yvaine standing there with her arms crossed, a frown creasing her eyebrows as she studied the smaller girl. Allison mumbled a thank you, and tucked the bag underneath her desk. The clothes had been borrowed by Yvaine to imitate Allison's scent around the baby triceratops, she had a feeling Yvaine has tried to get them as dirty and ripped as possible as revenge for her hair.

And maybe that she'd only had pencil skirts and blouses to offer.

Maybe.

So it was a surprise when the now-blonde-again woman bent down to pick up the stray sheets of paper from the floor and handed them to Allison, waving them expectantly when she hesitated to take them. The moment they passed into her hands Yvaine dropped them like they were infected and folded her arms again.

'So what's your deal?' She leant against Allison's desk and started flicking through one of the files.

Allison didn't have the balls to tell the woman off and instead squeaked out a barely intelligible 'excuse me?'

'Well for starters, the lab folk don't usually live on the island,' she gave Ally a pointed look, 'for another, no one on staff has been able to get a conversation from you, at first they thought you were just another snooty pencil pusher but it's gotten kinda obvious that you're just _really_ bad with people, plus, Billi's been vouching for you, saying "just give her a chance" and shit like that, so-' Yvaine breathed and pinched her nose.

'So I decided to return your clothes rather than burn them.' She spat out as fast as humanely possible.

'And while I'm here I've got to ask, I thought you were some fancy new coder? Why are you filing the expenses for…' she squinted her eyes, 'the board members financial year luncheon?'

'Uhhhhh-'

'She's being punished.' Cookie answered, his lab coat swooshing dramatically behind him as he slid, that's right, _slid on his socked feet,_ to a stop by Allison's desk, ruffling the hair of the man next to her as he went past.

'A stupid punishment that I've decided you've had well enough of.' He continued with a bright grin and ignoring the sour face of the jostled employee behind him.

A grin began to stretch across her face before she could help it.

'Really?' she breathed hopefully. The prospect of finally being able to work with code was enough to make her lifetime and she gripped the edges of her skirt tightly with excitement.

Yvaine flicked between their faces before scoffing and heading back towards the entrance, tracking muddy footprints over the Spartan like floors.

The blonde narrowed her eyes in thought at the lines the pristine girl had made in her skirt, the way her eyes had brightened in response to the news. Right when she'd been beginning to think that the girl just didn't have a lick of personality…

Whatever. She was just going to end up like like the rest of those Frankenstein's in there, creating what they wanted and playing god with their creations, calling them monsters when they lost control.

Cookie though… Cookie seemed to like her and the British coder had always been a good judge of character. He was the only one Yvaine and the rest of the trainers trusted out of all the geneticists at the park because he was the only one who seemed to remember these were animals not assets like everyone else called them.

And Masrani had said they wouldn't repeat Hammond's mistakes.

Whatever, Yvaine couldn't help but roll her eyes at the whole situation. The Allison girl would move from paper pushing to gene coding, she didn't give a rats, and now that Yvaine didn't have to borrow her clothes any more she wouldn't have to bother with her again.

She kicked up some leaves as she began the trek back to the nurseries, the autumn air beginning to cling to her bones.

Yes, she thought happily, she wouldn't have to bother with that Allison girl ever again.

* * *

Allison was going to have to bother Yvaine again and she blamed Cookie for it with every inch of her being. He'd pulled her out of paperwork all right, to help him with researching the cause of the heightened triceratops death rate. With all hands on deck for Masrani's latest projects, none of the current senior geneticists were available to work on the issue, and the juniors all had their own full work load to deal with.

Above all else, it had been pretty obvious that the only reason Wu had allowed it was because he was running our of paperwork and needed something to keep her busy. He'd also made it pretty clear with his snide remarks that he didn't think her work would amount to anything either.

Man she'd like to shove his snide remarks up his snide-

No no no, simple and calm, simple and calm, simple and _calm_ Allison.

She took a deep breath and tried to relax herself as she headed towards the nursery paddocks again but the heavy rain they were beginning to get had made everything muddy and she was struggling not to fall on her ass. At least not many would be around to see it though, only a few were out in the paddock cleaning the water and feed troughs.

All Allison had to do was ask for DNA samples of the current baby triceratops so that they could compare the genetic codes to the ones who had died. Cookie had explained that they were looking for anomalies, possible mistakes that could be effecting their life spans.

Her breath snatched in her throat as her feet tried to slide from underneath her again on a patch of wet grass. She grabbed hold of the paddock fence, using it as a crutch to keep her balanced, and tried to ignore the squelch of her high heels pulling out of the mud every time she stepped.

The fence could only save her ass for so long though, she'd have to let go of it to get to the GTG nursery along the very highly trafficked, muddy death trap of a path.

She very much blamed Cookie for this.

She walked with her hands either side like on a balancing beam and was so close- so damned close please god- when her shoes betrayed her.

She let out a shriek as the world dropped around her and mashed her eyes shut, waiting for the cold wet ground. Instead arms caught her around her waist and she stumbled to regain her balance, spinning around so she could see who'd grabbed her.

Of course it was the Grady man. He grinned at her impishly, grabbing her when she began to slip again and laughed at the mortified look on her face.

'Those shoes really aren't practical, you know that right?' He was grinning way too much to be comfortable, Allison thought, and he had dirt, dirt all over his face. It looked like he'd been wrestling with someone.

He must have realised she was staring because he laughed, 'sorry I was playing with my baby girl.'

If anything Allison's eyes got wider.

'No no no,' he quickly reassured her, 'raptor baby, not a human baby,'

Allison nodded frantically and waited for him to let go of her. Rain was starting to drip down again, chilling her skin and she just wanted to get this stupid mission over with. Grady didn't seem to get the memo though and she could feel the heat from his hands seeping though the material of her shirt.

Someone cleared their throat and startled them, Allison nearly fell for a third time but Grady's arm steadied her and they looked up the steps of the GTG nursery to see a brunette smiling at them, or rather, at Owen.

His mile faded slightly at the sight of the woman and Allison swore she saw him wince.

'Hailey!' He laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. 'Long time no s-'

'Because you've been avoiding me.' The girl cut him off, the smile still on her face though a little testier now. 'But that's okay because now you're here so we can go for lunch. Like. You. Promised.'

'Yeah a promise you made me make.' Owen muttered sourly. He must have thought of something though because he suddenly grinned again and began dragging Allison off in the opposite direction of the GTG nursery.

'Sorry Hailey,' he called behind them, 'but I _promised_ Ally that I'd show her Blue.'

She could hear the brunette spluttering behind them as they left. Maybe it was the fact that he was the _third_ person now to call her Ally or maybe it was the heat radiating off his hands but something distracted Allison long enough that she didn't realise they were heading to the Carnivore Nursery until they were in it and Owen had firmly closed the door behind them.

'H-Hailey seems… nice?' Allison fidgeted with her sleeve, hoping her voice hadn't squeaked too badly. Owen gave a snort and shook his head like a dog, water droplets splashing into her.

'She is, and she's great a great handler, she's just very…' Owen seemed to search for the right words in the ceiling, 'crazy girlfriend.' He seemed to decide and looked at her with a smile playing on his lips.

'Sorry about dragging you in here by the way.' Owen apologised and a thought crossed Allison's mind.

'Why'd she s-seem so shocked? When you said I was meeting- um…'

'Blue?' Owen grinned again, flashing straight white teeth. 'Because, _technically_ , I'm meant to be the only one interacting with her.'

She could _feel_ her eyes bulging and he laughed, pinching her cheek like she was three.

'Don't worry, Blue's only a bit over a foot at this stage.' He reassured her. 'I mean yeah her teeth can cut you up pretty bad when she clamps down but the only person she's really clamped down on is Hoskins' and that's because he's a dick.'

The memory flicked through Allison's head that this was _Owen Grady_ and that his "asset" was the _velociraptor_ , the dinosaur that had had helped rain hell on this island so many years ago, one that was so dangerously intelligent that Masrani had refused to breed them until he was certain of the parks ability to handle it, no matter how much it cost the park in potential earnings.

 _But on the other hand_ , her mind whispered, _this is what you've waited for, for nine years_.

She'd barely seen any more of the Triceratops than its head sticking out of the eggshell like a demented jack-in-the-box and had been forbidden from seeing it afterwards in case she messed up its patched bonding with Yvaine. Meeting dinosaurs were the reason she'd done an eight year course in genetic engineering, the idea that you could bring a creature that old back from the dead, creatures that her mother had filled bedtime stories with, creatures that- maybe if something _that old_ could come back from the dead then _maybe_ -

Allison nodded, 'I'd like to meet Blue.' A small smile played on the edge of her lips and Owen settled back, appraising her with an all-knowing grin.

'Okay, well first things first,' he grabbed a pair of work boots that stood by the door and held them out to her.

The brunette took them hesitantly, slipping her feet out of the mud slicked heels and hopping to pull on the boots. Once more Grady steadied her and she struggled to ignore the feeling that fluttered in her stomach. It was like bleeding but on the inside, like red was floating through her chest and pouring up to her cheeks. Maybe not red, pink?

Yes, pink.

She shook herself out of her thoughts and followed Owen down the corridor which branched off three ways. He took her down to the left, then right, then two lefts. She quickly lost track of the maze like area, everything was hospital white and had that antiseptic smell to follow it. God she hated that smell.

They reached a stretch of corridor with a viewing window. On the other side was a large room filled with bark and trees, The raptor's very own stretch of jungle all under a white man made roof.

Allison moved closer to the window looking for a movement but the trees were absolutely still and something niggled in her stomach to look closer.

 _'Look closely girl.' His breath was hot against her face, stinking of the beer he never stopped drinking. He cupped her face in his hands so gently, so very gently, like she was delicate china, chip chip chipping away._

 _'Look Allison, look look, **look!** '_

 _His grip became harsh and he twisted her neck sharply, the dogs jaws reaching for her throat-_

 **BAM!**

Snarling jaws slammed against the glass, a movement so quick she only caught a blue blur as she shrieked and tripped backwards. Owen broke up into snorts of laughter and offered her a hand up.

'Sorry,' he managed, 'I needed to test if she'd do it or not, Vic's been pissing me off with his talk about "assets" so I wanted to give him a… scare.' He finished lamely. She was looking at him with wide blue eyes, flicking between him and the window as if she wasn't sure which one held more danger.

He cleared his throat awkwardly before squatting down to her level. 'Look, I am sorry. I mean it. I would never have done it if I knew it would scare you this bad.' He held a hand out to help her up and she stared at it cautiously.

He was talking to her like someone talks to a scared animal, soothing and slow like she'd bolt any second. It was nice that he was being genuine but at the same time she could feel her eye beginning to twitch from the patronising tone.

'I-It's alright,' she tried to give a confident smile, 'I'm just a bit of a wuss.' God even the laugh she gave sounded fake, at least Grady was willing to roll with the punches, aka awkward pauses.

He gave a reassuring smile and pulled her up, leading her to a door with about fifty different warning signs on it, proclaiming the Do's & Don't's and Caution's in bold black letters against a bright red background.

Not daunting at all.

There was two sets of doors, Allison presumed to make sure the creature couldn't get out, and then they were in the jungle. The air was muggy and warm, completely different to the outside, but what really got her attention was the small dinosaur peeking its nose out of the bushes.

Owen whistled and Blue ran over, skidding to a stop in front of them and staring at Allison quizzically. She chittered lightly, her head teetering from left to right as if deciding whether or not to attack her.

Scratch that, she was definitely deciding whether or not to attack.

Owen held our his hand, palm facing the Raptor. 'Stand down,' he said firmly, Blue's eyes flicked back to him and Allison could see the baby turned to goo just looking at him.

She pattered happily over to Owen and flopped down at his feet, chewing on the toes of his boots and Owen gave her a grin, bending down to pat his girl.

'Well Allison, meet Blue.' The grin was infectious and she couldn't help but marvel at the little creature. About as tall as Allison's knees, her body was a warm grey except for two metallic blue stripes either side of her that ran from her eyes to the tip of her tail. Her eyes were amber and quick, catching every movement that happened around her from Allison brushing back her hair to-

A movement in the bushes and Blue was off at lightning speed. They lost all sight of her, couldn't even tell where she was, before they heard the unmistakable screech of a cornered rat and the firm snap and crunch of closing jaws. A few minutes later she trotted back out of the bushes, proudly carrying the head of a large rat, dropping it at the feet of her alpha and looking up adoringly.

Owen praised her, Allison tried not to look at the rat.

* * *

Alpha had brought a fleshling into their territory. Again. At least he seemed to like this one, he'd been wary with the White-Coats and down right distasteful of the Foul-Smeller, ever since Foul-Smeller had visited, Alpha had encouraged her to attack the invisible wall. It gave good scares, good scares were funny to Blue.

But this was a female fleshling, not a White-Coat, and she didn't have the foul smells that warned of no-good. But still, she was new and fleshling.

Alpha was also fleshling but Alpha was Alpha so it didn't matter.

Alpha was chittering something to the female, urging sounds that she looked at him reproachfully for. Eventually the female decided to obey Alpha, at least she knew to do that much, and knelt down to reach a hand out towards Blue.

The hand was trembling and Blue was not impressed, the girl was like the rat Alpha had let loose in here for hunting; scared. She was a Rat-Fleshling Blue decided, and a Rat-Fleshling had no place by Alpha's side if Blue did not think she was acceptable.

She growled and lunged for the hand. Her jaws snapped shut on empty air, Rat-Fleshling had flinched it away just in time and Blue huffed indignantly at the injustice.

The oddest thing was that Alpha growled at her for it! Blue thought Alpha would be proud of her for trying to teach the Rat-Fleshling the order of things but now he had told her off! And _in front of_ Rat-Fleshling!

Blue was mortified and promptly swung herself around to trot back into the jungle. If Alpha was going to be dumb then Alpha could be dumb without her help. A niggling feeling in her belly made her stay close to the fringe of the trees where they couldn't see her and she peered out at Alpha. His face had turned disappointed, was he sad Blue had left? Of course he was, Alpha and Blue were pack, no one else mattered, Blue was all Alpha had and vice versa. She didn't understand why Alpha felt the need to bring other fleshlings into their lives.

Alpha gentle growled something to Rat-Fleshling and they turned to leave the Jungle-Cave. A wave of hurt bled through Blue's belly and she raced after Alpha. Her normally silent movements gave way to fear and Alpha turned back to her with a soft smile, chattering something she had no way of understanding.

She whined in response and grabbed hold of his boot, determined to drag him away from the door, away from White-Coats and Foul-Smellers and Rat-Fleshlings. He pulled her off his boot and patted her towards the jungle, quickly opening the door to small cave and ushering Rat-Fleshling inside.

Blue tried to follow again and again and again but Alpha pushed her back every time, eventually managing to close the small cave. She saw their faces appear behind the invisible wall and whimpered when they disappeared.

She looked at the rats head she had given to Alpha, blank eyes stared back.

She was alone in the Jungle-Cave.

* * *

'Are you okay?' Allison asked carefully. Owen seemed subdued as they walked back along the corridors but he managed to give her a weak smile.

'Yeah, I just feel kinda guilty leaving her alone y'know?' Allison shook her head and he ruffled his hair ruefully. 'Right, I forgot, pencil-pusher.'

Allison rolled her eyes at the insult. 'Why do you feel g-guilty?'

'Because raptors are pack animals, they run as a pack, hunt as a pack, hell, they even sleep as one.' He sighed. 'But Blue's the only raptor on the island. When I'm not with her, she has no pack. It's not good for her to be that dependent on one person but the board wanted to be absolutely sure that they weren't wasting time on a, and I quote: "dud dino".'

She snorted derisively at that one and he laughed, leading her down another corridor.

'It's true, so now they've got some more raptor eggs developing but it's going to take another 2 months before they hatch. And they've gone and added different DNA apparently from what Blue's was and it's this whole big thing and-' He broke off and stared at her sheepishly.

'I've been rambling, sorry.' He said when she looked at him.

'I-it's alright.' She laughed, 'You're l-like Billi, you're good at t-talking.'

He thought for a moment before clicking his fingers. 'The red haired lady who works with the crocs? Suchomimus'.' he amended when she looked confused.

Allison nodded and he continued. 'I know her, nice lady. I don't get much time to interact with the other staff any more though.'

'Why's that?'

'Ah just some prank got out of hand.' He said evasively. They'd reached the front doors and he waved his hand when she made to take off the boots.

'Nah, keep them on or you'll end up face first in the mud. Come to think of it,' he paused, 'why were you out this way in the first place?'

'C-Cookie asked me to find Yvaine and g-get DNA samples from her.' She peered outside the windows of the front door and groaned when she realised just how much rain was lashing down. She turned back to Owen to say goodbye and paused as he shrugged of his jacket and handed it to her.

'You'll freeze out there otherwise,' he explained, 'what kinda dumb-ass doesn't bring a jacket in this kind of weather?'

Allison huffed at the insult and turned to leave only to have the jacket dropped on her head. She turned around in disbelief but Owen simply leaned against the wall and crossed his arms with a smile.

'She'll be in the GTG Nursery, come back here when you're done and I'll give you a ride to the labs.'

It wasn't that Allison didn't _want_ to argue but more that the sight of Grady leaning against the wall and smiling like that was doing something funny to her stomach, the snug fitting shirt didn't help either. Mumbling a thank you to the man she shrugged on the jacket before heading outside. Grady was confusing, Billi had warned her that he was trouble but so far Allison thought he'd been… well… nice. She hugged the jacket tighter around herself as she raced across to the GTG Nursery. The smell of oil and earth was strong but not… unpleasant. The pink feeling curled in her stomach again and spread across her face.

Oh god, this is what Billi had meant by trouble.

Damn it.


	6. Don't worry, be happy

Hey guys! Just giving a heads up that the next chapter may take awhile because term 3's started. I finished off this chapter instead of doing biology homework but hey, technically... it's got biological themes?

* * *

If Yvaine's face dropped the moment she saw Allison she tried not to let it get to her. Or the groan. Or the grumpy face she sported as she stomped over to where Allison stood oh god-

'Allison,' the blonde was trying to twist an accommodating smile on her face, 'to what do I owe the- well, you?'

'C-Cookie sent me I s-swear,' Allison wrung her hands, 'he's asked me to get DNA of your current baby Triceratops. J-Just some cheek swabs p-please.'

Yvaine blinked, 'Cookie said that there wasn't anyone available to look at it yet, the board's demanding all hands on deck with the baby Mosasaurus coming.'

'Y-yeah that's why Cookie a-asked me.' Allison gave a strained chuckle as Yvaine's eye began to twitch.

'Right.' Was the only response given before opening the door to the field like room that held the three baby triceratops. Allison hovered in the doorway, the memory of Wu's angry command to stay away from the triceratops ringing in her ears.

Yvaine noticed her waiting and impatiently waved her in. 'It should be fine now, besides this is a two person job.'

She asked her if she'd brought cotton buds and Allison fumbled to pull them and plastic bags out of her purse. One by one she caught the babies and swabbed their mouths, placing the slobbered stick into the plastic pocket Allison held before marking it with their name and number code.

When they were finished she quickly ushered Allison out of the room and they lapsed back into silence.

'I can hear you breath in every time you go to ask a question kid.' Yvaine rolled her eyes. 'What is it?'

'I thought that the M-Mosasaurus had already been born. T-That's what Owen m-made it sound like I mean.' she stuttered at Yvaine's odd look.

'Nah they just need to make sure all the pH levels and stuff stay perfect,' she said waving a hand. 'You've been talking to Owen Grady?' Yvaine looked at her thoughtfully when Allison shook her head yes.

'I'm asking because he normally keeps to himself these days.' She explained. 'The board ripped into him pretty badly after his last prank.'

'Crazy stupid.' Allison shrieked as a head popped over her shoulder.

'Ow,' the man grinned as he rubbed his ear. 'You've got a set of lungs newbie.'

'Yeah she just can't use them to speak.' Yvaine sighed and punched him in the arm. 'Don't sneak up on people like that, Logan.'

He apologised with the same grin and continued. 'I was just saying it's stupid he got in so much trouble for that prank, it wasn't even bad.'

'He slipped laxatives into Harris Scott's coffee on his birthday.' Logan explained, seeing Allison's confused expression. 'It was right before he was going on a date with this chick he'd been bragging all day about. He literally shat himself in front of her and was _really_ mad.' Logans chuckle turned to an aggravated sigh.

'Well, Harris' dad is on the board so when he lodged a complaint it got taken all the way to Masrani and…' Logan winced, 'hell hath no fury like a Scott scorned.'

'Scott Senior wanted Owen removed effective immediately,' Yvaine continued, 'Masrani needed to show a united front, especially with competitor companies around right now, but he couldn't afford to lose Owen.'

Logan broke in, 'Yeah, the dude spent three years living rough on Isla Sorna studying Raptors for InGen, he knows them better than anyone.'

'Isla Sorna?' Allison's eyebrows furrowed in thought, 'T-The abandoned island? I thought no one was allowed there.'

'Yeah it's protected by the government now as a restricted nature reserve but InGen was granted permission for a small exploration team to set up shop there so long as the didn't disturb the ecosystem.' Yvaine stopped by the front door and reached for the handle.

'Owen was super excited about the raptor clutches,' sighed Logan, he slumped against the door with a thump and ignored the blondes scowl. 'I felt so bad for him when they kept failing, but Blue's reached three weeks and still kicking so hey,' he shrugged, 'maybe they've got it right this time.'

Allison tried to ignore Yvaine's incessant tugging on the handle and asked what he was talking about.

Logan looked at her in surprise, 'I thought you would've heard about it by now from the other lab-rats. They had to recreate the DNA sequencing algorithm they used for the original raptors at Jurassic Park so it was a lot of trial and error on whether or not the embryo would even survive until hatching.'

'Why couldn't they just use the original?'

'Because early on in the creation of Jurassic world someone. destroyed. it.' Yvaine punctuated each word with a tug, abruptly Logan stepped to the side and she whacked the door into her head.

'See, this is why they paired you with the three-horns.' He grinned. Her head slowly turned in his direction and the expression must have been horrifying because the grin slipped of Logan's face as he sprinted down the corridor, the sounds of Yvaine's boots chasing after him.

That was probably her cue to leave she thought with a wince as a smack and a howl echoed back down the hall. She stepped outside and pressed herself against the walls of the Nursery, the veranda giving her a thin strip of shelter from the heavy rain.

Grady had told her to come back to the Carnivore Nursery when she was done but Allison didn't think that was a good idea, she'd be better off staying away from "trouble" as Billi had called him.

But then… he'd gone and given her his jacket. The thought sank in her stomach, if she didn't go back then he'd get soaked.

With a groan she dashed back to the Carnivore Nursery and peeked through the window, Grady was sitting against the wall whittling a piece of wood with a pocketknife. He dusted the figure off and examined it. Allison bit at her lip, maybe she could hang the jacket on the door handle?

'What are you doing?' Allison whirled around to see a man behind her. Barry, she thinks. She quickly shrugged of the jacket and held it out to him.

'That's Owen's.' Barry said slowly. She nodded and motioned for him to take the jacket. He grabbed it uncertainly and she mumbled a thank you as she moved past him, more than ready to go back to the labs.

* * *

Owen looked up as Barry walked through the door and laughed at the odd expression on his face.

'What happened to you?' He asked, tucking his pocketknife away and tossing the wooden figure to the man.

Barry caught it with one hand, simultaneously throwing Owen's jacket to him.

'A girl gave me your jacket, that's what happened.' He said, examining the rough cut velociraptor with a smile. 'This is going well.'

'Thanks.' Owen said distractedly, 'You saw Allison?'

'Yes, she was just outside the- door.' he finished lamely as said door shut behind Owen.

The rain seemed to be letting up now at least and he could spot Allison a little way away. His caught up to her quickly and wrapped his jacket around her.

'The hell are you doing Kid?' She was going to get hypothermia like this for gods sake. Meanwhile all she could do was squeak in surprise at the sight of him.

He told her to stay there and surprise seemed to have rooted her where she was for a moment because she was still there when he walked back with his bike. He hopped on and pulled her behind him, making sure her hands were tightly wrapped around him before bringing it to life. Mud splattered around them as the wheels gained grip and pushed them forward.

If the quad had been fun then this was exhilarating. At times the bike would slip and the world would be spinning away from them until Owen got it back under control, the cold rain setting her skin alive against the heat of the engine.

By the time they arrived at the labs the rain had ended but mud had well and truly flecked its way up their legs and arms and she let out a laugh as she slipped off.

'I didn't know you had a bike.' Allison grinned, pulling out her ponytail and trying to smoothen the curls down.

'Yeah?' He laughed. 'I've had her out by the bungalow for repairs, poor girls getting old.'

She hummed in appreciation at the motorcycle before remembering herself and straightening up, clearing her throat and pulling off his jacket.

'T-Thank you.' She stuttered and he looked at her as he grabbed back his jacket.

'No problem, except for the bit where you were going to walk back in a downpour and get sick.' He raised his eyebrows and Allison bit her lip.

'S-sorry, I didn't w-want to- to-'

'Bother me?' He supplied and ruffled her hair, 'I'm the one who offered, kid.'

She nervously patted down the curls that were beginning to rise and said goodbye before heading towards the Labs.

This time, mercifully, she remembered to pull the door.

* * *

By the time she'd given the DNA samples to Cookie and explained why she was covered in mud it was five o'clock and everyone was packing up as quickly as they could, chatting about their plans for the weekend back at the Mainland.

'What about you, Ally?' Cookie asked, 'Any plans for the weekend?'

'Oh! Uh no, not really.' She said. She'd been looking over the formula currently being used for the Triceratops for any basic miscalculations, not that she was really expecting to find anything, InGen hand-picked its scientists and she doubted any of them were stupid enough to make a mistake like that.

'Ah come on! It's a Friday!' He chided gently, 'You said you're room mates with Billi right? I'm sure she'd be happy to take you out with her. Besides, you're what twenty-one? Twenty-two?'

'Twenty-four.'

'Really? Anyway, as someone under twenty-five you are legally required to go out and get smashed, it's practically in your constitution.

'Ah of c-course,' Allison smiled, 'right under "hurl anything British in the river".' She looked pointedly at him and he laughed good naturedly.

'Try it, if you dare,' he challenged her with a sly grin and thumped his chest. Allison burst out laughing and smothered it into a cough as Dr Wu walked past, scowling in their direction.

'Does he ever g-go home?' She tried to stop giggling.

'Nah he's a vampire.' Cookie joked, he mimicked having fangs with his fingers and pretended to bite at her neck.

She giggled again and started packing up her things.

'Hey Ally?'

She let out a hum in acknowledgement and he continued, 'You're going really well, good job.'

It could have easily been a comment on her work ethic but when she turned around she could see a warm smile lining Cookie's face. Relief flooded her system at the praise. She'd been trying so hard to get along with so many people and it was nice to know the efforts hadn't gone unnoticed.

'Thank you.' She said softly, 'Have a good weekend Cookie.'

'You too Ally.'

* * *

'Are you sure you don't want to come out with me tonight?' Billi asked hopefully, putting on a pair of earrings.

Allison shook her head and leaned against the kitchen bench. 'I wouldn't have fun and n-neither would you.' She knew from experience that Billi would feel obligated to spend the night by her side if she came out, and Billi wasn't the type to hide by the wall all night.

'Well I won't lie, I'd really like you to come,' Billi began, 'but if that's how you feel then I'm glad you're sticking to your guns. You do you.'

She pulled a spoon out of the draw and checked her reflection, pursing her lips in appreciation before whirling around and pointing the cutlery at the startled brunette.

'I've got something for you.' She announced. Her heels beat a tattoo against the floor as she stalked to her room, reappearing a moment later with a sketch pad and a metal container. She placed them on the bench and watched Allison.

'Yes?' Allison asked uncertainly.

'I found the sketches.' Billi replied nonchalantly. Allison felt the blood rush to her cheeks and her mouth formed an O.

'They were good,' the red head continued, 'I mean some of the anatomy looked a little wonky but I can't really talk seeing how I mostly do abstract. My favourite was the red ginger lilly, you captured it really well in grey lead so I was curious how you could do with colour.'

She motioned for Allison to open up the metal container and she pulled off the lid to find a rainbow of pencils.

'Billi I- it's just a-'

'A hobby? It's good to have hobbies Ally.' She was like a whirlwind of fire around the apartment, grabbing her heels and purse and brushing past her towards the door. 'I'm not expecting you to whip out a Monet or a Rambert or anything, you don't even need to show me just…' she paused with her hand on the handle and looked back at the small girl.

'Just have a go.' She smiled, 'Gotta go, bye!'

The door clicked shut behind her and Allison flicked her eyes between the door and the sketch pad before huffing and sitting down on the couch. She flicked a random channel onto the TV and tried to pay attention.

"There was this guy he just sails from mountain to-" _Switch_

The sketches had just been an out of the blue _thing_. She'd just been _bored_. That's all.

"I'm undercover."

"No you're not."

"Well I'm not _now_!" _Switch_

And yeah she'd enjoyed art when she was younger but that was before _he'd_ gone and threatened to burn her alive if he caught her doing it again. Oh _god_.

She let her eyes flicker away from the TV to the bench where the innocent book sat waiting.

And that's all it was. An innocent book, it should not make her heart race this much. For gods sake how long was she going to let him ruin her? Let him keep her from the things she wanted?

She'd practised drawing by copying the anatomical pictures in her mothers science textbooks. By the time her father had stacked them up outside and blown them to pieces with his shotgun she'd already moved on to the world outside. Birds that would perch on her window sill and pose for her, trees that would bloom softly in the sun, the stray cat that came by every now and again for scraps.

She grabbed the book and pencil box and sat back in front of the TV, the vase of red ginger lilies teasing her. Grabbing a hue between pink and red she began creating the soft edged petals, blending it out like the noise of the TV into the background.

"While InGen is the leading company in genetic engineering, BioSyn is becoming strong competition-"

* * *

She'd filled three pages back and front with sketches by the time Billi stumbled through the door, smashed off her face and giggling madly. She rushed to steady the red head only to have her face squished between two hands and cooed at.

'Look at little Ally,' Billi giggled, 'I love my little Ally!'

The door opened again and two more girls came through, both wearing matching expressions of exasperation.

'Billi let go of her face and get into bed.' scowled a tall girl with light red hair, the natural colour offset next to Billi's scarlet. She grabbed Billi and lead her to the couch.

'You're the room-mate right?' Her friend said. 'We live next door, I'm Lilith and that's Thea. Sorry we haven't introduced ourselves sooner.

Allison looked towards the bathroom door where the rooms connected and Lilith shook her head.

'Nah we're on the right side, on that sides Bridget and Nadia.'

'O-Oh okay.' Allison stumbled, her tongue felt as heavy and useless as Billi's current coordination.

'Let gooooooo of me.' Billi whined, 'I want Ally back!'

'"Ally" doesn't want to deal with a drunken mess." Thea snapped looking thoroughly fed up.

'I-It's a-alright.' Allison stuttered, she grabbed a glass from the counter and filled it with water, her hands were trembling so much that the liquid was rippling and she could feel their eyes burning through to her back.

Thea shrugged and dropped Billi on the couch with a thump. 'Suit yourself, I have my own future hangover to deal with.'

'You've never had a hangover a day in your life.' Lilith rolled her eyes, 'Are you sure, uh… Ally?'

Allison nodded quickly and the two girls left leaving her with Billi. She passed her the glass of water and made sure she drank at least half before taking the cup and setting it on the table. Bending down she began to undo the death trap heels the woman was wearing.

'For someone who doesn't go out you seem to know what you're doing.' Billi slurred accusingly.

'I'm used to taking care of drunk people.' She replied quietly and Billi went silent.

She helped her walk to bed and turned around as Billi stripped and tugged on pyjamas, moaning when Allison made her go to the bathroom and brush her teeth.

'Know an alcoholic huh?' She finally asked when she was lying in bed. Allison moved the glass of water to the bedside table and nodded.

'My ex was an alcoholic,' Billi sighed, 'I was with him for a couple of years before my mum slapped some sense into me.' She looked at Allison as carefully as a drunk person could.

'They can't control your life forever.' It was the most serious tone Allison had ever heard come out of her mouth and her lips twitched into a smile in response.

'I know,' was her reply. She tucked the blankets around Billi's shoulders and turned off the light. 'Goodnight Billi.'

'Goodnight little Ally.'

* * *

'I want to die.' Billi moaned dropping her head onto the cool kitchen bench. Allison hummed in sympathy and asked if she'd like some toast.

'Nooo,' she groaned, 'I want something greasy.'

'Actually g-greasy foods are worse for your sto-'

'Ally,' Billi pointed a finger in the air, still face down on the bench. 'I love you but please allow me to ruin my life the way I see fit.' She let her hand thump back onto the bench and Allison winced before rolling her eyes.

'Alright go get your greasy foods then.'

'I can't walk.' Came the mumbled reply.

Allison sighed and pulled on a pair of boots. 'Come on then,' she tapped Billi on the shoulder, 'we'll walk together.'

Billi looked at her blearily, blinking when she registered what Ally was wearing. The younger girl had finally had time to go shopping and the normal skirt and blouse had been replaced with jeans and a shirt and the heels with a pair of black anklet boots. Her hair was down for once and she looked… comfortable, Billi thought. More comfortable than Billi had ever seen her.

'Come on Billi,' Ally urged, 'the park m-may open later on Saturday but you still have w-work.'

'Ughhh.'

By the time Billi was dressed enough to leave the apartment without scaring off guests it was ten o'clock and the park was bustling with visitors. It also seemed like a lot of the other employees who'd gone out last night had the same idea as Billi and were crowded inside a fast food place.

It was so crowded Allison felt like she would choke as Billi pushed her way up to the counter, dragging Allison behind her.

The noise threatened to overwhelm her, crashing like a tsunami against her. Someone knocked into her as they walked past and the line behind her jostled forward. On the other side of the room someone squealed in laughter and the sound reverberated against the linoleum.

'What do you want Ally?' Billi asked after she'd placed her order. Allison stuttered and the server at the counter stared at her blankly.

'Ally?' Billi asked again looking concerned. The blood had drained from the brunettes face and she flinched sharply when a tray clattered to the ground, pushed off a table by a fussy child.

Allison stared at the mess. Chips scattered the floor and tomato sauce splattered over the top like a crime scene like a crime scene like a crime scene. The parent yelled at the child, grabbing the kids arm and pointing at the mess on the floor like it was a crime scene like a crime scene _l_ _ike a crime scene._

 _Police sirens wailed all around them and the dogs were going crazy. Brute yanked at the end of his chain, choking himself in an effort to reach her, slobber pouring out of his mouth like the blood out of her own._

 _Strong hands pulled her up and away away away, walking backwards from Brute, from the arrests, from the blood of a crime scene-_

'Allison!'

She gasped like she'd been pulled out of the ocean, staring with wide eyes at scarlet blood- no not blood- hair, Billi's hair, she tried to ground herself desperately. She mumbled what she hoped was an excuse to her friend, oh god friend, and frantically made her way outside. She found her way to a side street that was quiet at this time of morning and slid down the wall to sit, hugging her knees to her chest and trying to calm her breathing.

And she'd been doing so damn well, she thought miserably.

A pair of well worn boots stepped in front of her before their owner crouched down to her level. Owen examined her for a moment before settling down next to her. He pulled out the wooden figure and the pocket knife again and started whittling, humming a steady rhythm under his breath.

The tone was soothing and deep and somehow her breathing began to match to it, forcing her to breathe slower and calmer and pulling her back into control.

'Couldn't handle the crowd?' He guessed, pausing to blow dust off the wood. She looked at him or a moment before nodding and he pursed his lips in thought.

'I saw you run out and thought it'd be best to follow you,' he explained, 'don't want to risk you somehow falling into the T. Rex Kingdom now do we?'

She let out a weak laugh at that and he grinned in response. 'You think I'm joking but if anyone ever manages to do it, it'll be you.' He teased.

They lapsed back into silence and she watched him whittle away the wood. Now that she was closer she could see that he'd carved it into a raptor and he held it out for her to see. She smiled in appreciation and he tucked it back into his pocket before standing up and offering her a hand. His strong grip pulled to her feet and she dusted herself off, pausing when she noticed him watching her.

'You're not dressed like a lab rat today.' He said and she nodded slightly.

'It's more comfy.' She mumbled quietly and Owen laughed.

'Called it,' he claimed smugly. 'You always look awkward in those skirts.' He explained when she looked at him weirdly.

'Oh.' Because really, what was she meant to say to that?

'They looked good though.' A sly smirk teased across his face and Allison spluttered in response.

She could see the mirth in his eyes and huffed in irritation, trying to ignore the fact that she just _knew_ her face was bright red. She turned away, ready to go find Billi and apologise for running off. His footsteps followed her back out onto Main street and she sped up, trying to put some distance between them.

Unfortunately, his strides were about twice the size of hers and he caught up with her easy, whistling all the way to the tune of don't worry be happy, even having the nerve to do the eyebrow pump when she glanced at him.

Billi wasn't outside the fast food place and she seriously doubted the woman would still be inside, maybe she'd gone looking inside one of the other shops? She was beginning to wish she'd grabbed Billi's number. By the time Owen was through his fourth rendition of the song she was ready to scream. Mercifully, at that moment, she spotted Billi's unmistakable hair a little way in front of them.

She went to yell out her name but it stuck in her throat and she resorted to running to catch the red head by the arm and waving.

'Ally! Oh thank god!' Billi cried seeing the brunette. 'I was worried you'd fallen into an attraction or something.' Allison felt her eye twitch at that.

'I'm o-okay.' Allison insisted. 'I-'m s-sorry about t-that.'

Billi looked at for a long moment before nodding. 'I'm glad you're okay.' She said warmly.

A loud sneeze made both girls look up and Owen froze.

'Sorry,' he said and Billi scoffed.

'Owen Grady, what're you doing here?' She cocked her head.

He shrugged. 'Making sure the kid was alright, but I guess that's your job now huh?' He patted the top of Allison's head as he said goodbye and strolled off whistling, ignoring the scowl Allison sent after him.

'Jerk.' Allison looked up in surprise to see Billi's mouth twisted into a grimace.

'I-I thought y-you said h-he was f-friendly.' Not all the anxiety had faded from the panic attack yet and the look Billi sent showed for certain she'd noticed her stutter back in full force.

The good thing about Billi though was that she didn't push. 'Friendly but trouble.' She responded rolling her eyes. 'Sometimes only trouble. Trust me.'

Allison nodded her head to appease her friend, following her as she started back towards the fast food place. There was obviously a history between Billi and Owen, she bit her lip in thought, but it wasn't any of her business. Just like the rivalry between Dr Wu and Cookie wasn't her business, or the way Nathan and Yvaine's hands always seemed to brush a little longer than needed.

But… a memory from yesterday fluttered to the forefront of her mind.

'Hey Billi?' The redhead turned to look at her. 'W-Why did someone destroy the o-original raptor algorithm?'

Billi pursed her lips before closing the distance between them, speaking lowly as if one of the visitors was listening.

'When the news broke about the park reopening a group of activists began protesting it.' She muttered. 'They said that it was unethical and immoral bringing these creatures back from the dead for profit.'

'So… they destroyed it?' Billi nodded, swatting a fly away from her face. It was getting hotter as the sun grew overhead and it would almost be time for Billi to start her shift.

'They eventually realised that people had too much interest in dinosaurs to care about "morals".' Billi snorted. 'So they decided to pick a smaller target and switched to protesting the creation of the carnivores instead. Their biggest and- well admittedly strongest point was the events of the original Jurassic Park.'

'The raptors.' Allison said.

'Exactly,' Billi humphed, 'and look I'm not the biggest fan of raptors but even I think that the group was being extreme, they wanted all of the raptors on Isla Sorna put down for gods sake.'

'I bet they weren't the o-ones volunteering.' Allison rolled her eyes and Billi laughed.

'Nope!'

'So how _did_ they destroy it?'

Billi sighed and started walking again. 'They blackmailed an employee to destroy everything to do with the creations of the carnivores, starting with the raptors. Thankfully that was the only thing they got through before they got busted.'

'Still,' Allison sighed, 'That's a-a lot of time and m-money lost.'

'If you say so,' Billi shrugged, 'I personally dropped biology the moment I could so I understand nada.'

She turned the new information over in her head as they walked. Something about it was niggling at her mind, an idea brushing like feathers and melting like snow the minute she tried to focus on it.

She scuffed the ground in frustration, why was everything always out of reach?

* * *

Thank you to everyone who left a review and for your patience with this story :)


	7. Okay, worry a little bit

'H-how much do y-you know about genetics?'

Owen looked up from where he was sitting with Blue and shrugged, 'I did basic science so I know a bit about genes.'

'W-what about gene expression? C-coding?'

'Well you can kinda guess from the names,' he laughed, 'hey watch it Blue.' He warned as the raptor made a snap at his fingers.

Allison frowned, 'Does she usually…?' she motioned at Blue uncertainly.

'Nope, don't worry though she's just letting me know she's upset.'

'A-about what?'

'That I'm introducing someone new to the pack.' Owen looked at her grinning, 'she doesn't want to share.'

Allison felt her face flame up and switched her eyes to the paper in front of her. For the past couple of days Owen had been dragging her to the raptor nursery every afternoon, not for any particular reason as far as she could see. He'd be cleaning the space, interacting with Blue, even doing his paperwork balancing the folder on his knees like Allison was now, but she had no idea what he was up to. It was making her nervous.

'Why do you ask?' He looked at her curiously and she shrugged.

'Just thinking about something.'

* * *

Winter had come. Stark white walls surrounded her on all sides and the cold seeped into her very bones, its icy grip never faltering. She'd guarded this wall for years now, staring out at the vast wilderness that lay beyond, wilderness that housed the monsters and Wildlings and creatures unknown. As a sister of the Night's Watch it was her sworn duty to guard and defend these walls-

'Hey,' a voice interrupted her already derailed thoughts. She peered over The Wall to see Nathan standing there with a to-go coffee cup.

'I asked Cookie how you take your coffee,' he explained, 'thought I'd grab you something to say thank you for doing this, I mean…' he kind of helplessly gestured at the countless tall stacks of paper surrounding her.

'I-It's okay,' she picked at her skin self-consciously but he shook his head.

'No, really,' he came around to the other side of The Wall and placed the cup down carefully. 'From both me and Yvaine, thank you, _for caring_.'

* * *

'You've been pouring over those codes for the past three days.' Billie complained, 'the Lab Rat's scanned them on the computers for errors already, what good is this going to do?'

'Everyone can make mistakes.' Allison said and flipped to the next page.

The redhead rolled her eyes, 'Com-put-ers,' she clapped with each syllable, 'how would they make a mistake, Ally?'

The girl paused for a moment and absent-mindedly tapped the page with her pencil. 'Because what if,' she said slowly, 'what if it's happening again?'

'Huh?'

Ally shook her head with a mumble and went back to scanning the page.

'Fine,' Billie drew the word out for as long and whiny as possible, 'it's okay, I'll just go out by myself. Dinner for one, all alone, everyone judging me, lasagna growing soggy from my tears, no no really I'll be fine,' she even threw in a fake sob, 'just lonely.'

The brunette on the couch nodded distractedly and Billie gave up. With a dramatic sigh she flopped onto the couch and pulled out her phone. When Ally looked at her she shrugged.

'You're better than lasagna.'

Ally just laughed and shook her head.

* * *

'Reports of high Triceratops death rates have been reported in the last few months,' the news reporter announced, 'rates that have nearly tripled in such a short amount of time that it simply can't be natural. Animal Rights Activists have long been protesting the theme park ever since news of its opening back in 2005.

We have with us a member of the organisation, Stacy Edwards, what do you have to say about these incidents?'

'Hi, well firstly thanks for meeting me but, these can hardly be called incidents. These are the results of the neglect of the creatures and an egotistical pride that is blinding everyone. I mean, how can they possibly properly care for creatures that we understand so little about? As well as the catastrophic effect on the ecosystem! Reintroducing these dinosaurs in the present day environment is screwing over any existing wild life on the island. These animals should not be being used for profit. This increase in animal deaths is just proving what my group has been advocating for the past six year, that InGen and Masrani Global have no idea what they're messing with and that Jurassic World should be _shut. down_.'

* * *

'Uh… Ally' Billie asked as she closed the front door.

'Mhm? The girl answered from the floor.

'Whatcha doing?'

'I thought visualising the genome might help.'

'Right, so… I know I encouraged you to be more creative, but Ally,' the red head looked at the hundred of strips of red yarn running from wall to wall, criss crossing like lasers in a spy movie, 'Ally, _this really isn't what I meant.'_

* * *

'My report for the month sir.' Claire said, placing it on Masrani's desk. He kept his head in his hands as he asked her.

'Good or bad?'

'Sir?' She asked cautiously.

He finally lifted his head up and looked at her wearily. 'Good news or bad news?'

Claire smoothed her face and ignored the churning in her stomach that the statistics were causing.

'The mortality rate has increased exponentially sir. Realistically these assets were meant to live for seven years and we've lost nearly thirty percent of the herd within a matter of months.'

The CEO looked downright miserable. 'It's moments like these that I despise being in charge. I need to task more of the geneticists with fixing this but I also need them to focus on the Mosasaurus. The current DNA extraction methods aren't able to retrieve enough of the original DNA and at the moment it can't even warrant being called a dinosaur we've had to patch so many gaps.'

He rubbed his eyes and looked thoroughly exhausted. 'Tell me, Miss Dearing, what do you believe I should do?'

'Focus on the Mosasaurus sir.' She replied smoothly. 'PR can manage the news outlets and sooth any ruffled feathers from the investors. The knowledge that this new asset will make them more money than they've lost will ease their minds.'

'And the Triceratops'?'

'The labs can always produce more assets, sir.' Claire smiled reassuringly but Masrani looked at her long and hard.

'Creatures, Claire.' He reminded her, 'Not assets, living, breathing, creatures.'

* * *

'It's okay you can stay outside this time.' Billie reassured her, 'Go sit in the shade and relax, I'll be right back.'

Billie ducked into the bustling fast food place again and Ally went to go find a bench. This time of day Main Street was thankfully a little less crowded so there were seats aplenty. She chose one in full sun and relaxed against the warm wood. The sun made her eyelids red and yellow and when she opened them the whole world had turned blue.

* * *

'Yvaine?' A voice called from behind her gently. She quickly wiped her face and turned around to see Maisie, a soft voiced trainer with mousy brown hair and honey eyes offering her a tissue.

They hadn't know Maisie for that long, she was one of the carers for the soon-to-be Mosasaurus so she was new to the island but she'd slipped right into the ranks because of her dedication to the animals they looked after, which is why Yvaine knew the look on Maisie's face wasn't pity so much as understanding.

Maisie dropped to the floor next to her and they sat on the apartments roof together, legs swinging over the edge.

'I'm sorry,' she said. She was sorry that the Triceratops' were dying, she was sorry that Yvaine was losing the babies she'd hand-raised, she was sorry that InGen cared more about the next money-making "asset" than their living ones.

'Thank you' Yvaine said softly.

The sun was setting over the park and they watched as it dipped, colours bleeding out of it one by one.

'Yvaine?' Nathan called, his head sticking out of the hatch, 'we need you.' His voice broke a bit on the last word and her stomach clenched as she turned to look at him.

'What is it?'

'Quackity, Domino and Bonnie. I'm so sorry Yvaine, they're-'

'Dead.' She finished for him, her heart clenched this time and something black and rotten started to sink into her. Staring out at the colours of the sky, the beautiful sky over a beautiful park full of beautiful creatures and tourists who didn't give a fuck and a company that cared even less and with a swing of her arm she threw her work issued phone as far as she could and screamed and cursed till she ran out of oxygen and had to breathe.

'I hate them,' she finally managed to choke out, 'I hate those damn Lab Rats.'

* * *

'So she's made no progress?' Wu surmised, 'I knew she wouldn't, Masrani raved about her intelligence but as far as I've seen she's no more intelligent than a-'

'You haven't trusted her with anything that she could show off on you twat,' Cookie ground out, 'besides she's working on a theory at the moment.'

'A theory about what?' Wu said sharply, 'what's her theory?'

Cookie eyed him appraisingly and shrugged, 'she wouldn't say, apparently its something buzzing in her head that she's trying to piece together.'

Wu relaxed, 'so, like I said,' he snorted, 'she has nothing.'

* * *

' _Three weeks straight_ I've been working on this,' Ally vented, 'did you know a printed copy of the Triceratops' genome is _two hundred thousand_ pages long? And I've run through it via computer _three times_ , I've gone through it _by hand_ twice, if I couldn't accurately speed read I still wouldn't be finished! I've checked for every disease, disorder and genetic condition in existence!'

Ally was pacing a hole in the floor of Blue's nursery before Owen's very eyes and he frowned as he watched her. Sharp teeth nipped at his fingers and he drew his attention back to Blue as he threw a toy for his girl.

'The only thing they've found is a small hole in the lining of the lung that's making it collapse, it's in the same area for each one but there's no reason for it! They think it's the same reason a lot of the babies aren't hatching. When they try to switch to breathing their lungs are filling up with the fluid and drowning before they can make it out of the egg.

And they're struggling to scan through the skin of the current Trikes to see if any of them have holes because it's so thick, not to mention pretty much the whole Gallimimus herd has come down with a cold, and there were those Microceretus' that got sick from eating a toxic plant so medical is swamped'

'Okay…' Owen said slowly. He flicked his eyes over to the corner where Barry was sitting and fixing another one of Blue's toys. Barry shrugged at him.

'Well what causes that? Surely there's a disease that attacks the nervous system?'

'Hundreds,' moaned Ally, 'and we've checked for _all_ of them.'

Owen watched her from where he sat with Blue. He'd be more caught up on the fact that she hadn't stuttered once if she hadn't entered the room ranting. The small brunette was pacing the room restlessly, twisting her hands and muttering to herself. She looked loony and the dark circles and crazy hair didn't help.

'When did you last sleep?' He asked and she shook her head.

'Couple of days, I've been napping,' she shook her hand flippantly. 'And I can't sleep now, the herds gone from twenty-eight to seventeen and Yvaine and Nathan are counting on me and there's something- _something_ -'

The frustration was overwhelming, something on the tip of her brain and it just wouldn't- it just wouldn't! She pulled at her curls, stretching them until the ringlets went straight before releasing them where they rebounded full force into her face. She slid down the wall of the room and sighed.

She'd been staring off into nothing for awhile before she suddenly started speaking. 'Blue's patterns are really pretty, are all raptors coloured like that?'

The raptor in question always seemed to know when she was being talked about and raised her hackles, the small almost spine like "feathers" rattling together menacingly.

Owen stroked them down nonchalantly, 'Nah, they used black-throated monitor lizard DNA to help patch up some of the missing spots in her coding sequences. They've used other species DNA for the newer ones so I don't know what they're going to look like.'

'How are the eggs going?' Curiosity seeped its way through her tone as she tried to shuffle a bit closer without her skirt riding up.

'Ah, good,' Owen said looking anywhere other than her legs, shooting a glare at Barry for snorting, 'about five weeks to go on this clutch but they've all been coming along really well.'

'I'm glad.' Ally smiled and he grinned back.

'When they hatch you'll be the first to meet them.' He said and Ally groaned.

'Please no, last time that happened I was doing paperwork for weeks.'

The sound of Owen's laugh filled the room and Ally giggled. Barry smiled as he watched the two of them, tossing a treat to the aggravated raptor who was wondering what the hell her Alpha was doing.

* * *

Main street was eerily deserted as Allison walked down it. Through a restaurant window she could see Adenine and Uracil holding hands and eating a candlelit dinner. Guanine and Cytosine walked past her carrying three hydrogen bonds.

'Stay really still okay Ally?' Billie said, 'if you move she'll fall off.'

Ally nodded and steadied the triceratops on her head. It was the baby who'd imprinted on her, if Yvaine saw this she'd be angry, maybe she should put it back?

She placed it on the grass of the paddock and straightened up. There, now Yvaine wouldn't kill her. But if she left the Trike here then it might catch a disease from the corpse. Big black flies flew out of the dead triceratops and tried to land on her face. She tried to swat them away but they were massive snarling dogs and she shrieked as their jaws snapped shut inches from her face.

'Stay really still okay Allison?' Her father crooned, 'if you move he'll get you.'

In the corner of her eye she could see Thymine stalking up to Adenine and Uracil. 'You bitch,' it yelled, 'you evil fucking slut!'

'I'm not sorry,' Adenine's voice was calm, the mountain against the raging sea, 'Without Uracil the code couldn't work, she would have been a monster like you.'

The dog grabbed her boot this time and Allison screamed.

'Pay attention to me Allison!' her father yelled, 'don't get distracted now or you'll miss it!' he raised a gun and pointed it behind her. The shot rang out before she could turn her head and by the time she had Adeline was lying down, her body crumpled over itself and red leaking from the hole between her eyes.

'Mum!' Allison cried, she tried to reach the dark haired woman on the ground but strong hands pulled her back.

'You killed her! You killed mum!'

'Did you see me do it?' His breath stank as he pressed his face against hers. 'Did you see me do it? Do you have proof?'

Allison stared at Adeline. Uracil sat next to her, they weren't holding hands. Blood matted her mums brown curly hair.

'You were meant to be a secret,' Uracil said blankly, she couldn't see his face. 'we tried to keep you hidden.'

'Secrets kill people.' Her father said. 'You're mother kept a secret.'

The monitor lizard nodded. 'Adeline didn't want to have a baby with a monster, so she found a man. She substituted the DNA.'

'Gross, don't talk about my parents like that.' Allison complained. The monitor lizard stared at her, it wasn't a lizard, it was Blue. Her teeth were inches from her face, hot breath choked Ally's lungs, she was caught in something and she couldn't get out. Blue had monitor lizard DNA and the stripes on her sides became blinding. The light was blinding, she was choking, her father was laughing, where was-'

'Oi! Ally! Wake up!' Billie shook her again and Allison gasped. She tried to sit up but her covers were twisted and warped, Billie quickly helped her untangle them and sat back to let the younger girl breath.

'I'm- okay-.' she said haltingly, her breath coming out in quick pants. Billie must have pulled up the blinds because the light was shining directly into her eyes and she squinted against it.

'Bad dream huh?' Billie asked sympathetically.

'A-and and even sh-sh-shittier reality.' She finally managed. She stood on shaking legs and started heading for the bathroom.

After showering she felt slightly better but the sinking feeling of dread in her stomach wouldn't leave. If she was right, and something told her she was, the triceratops illness was definitely fixable but the consequences of this information would cause a lot of damage.

She looked at her face in the mirror, a pimple had popped up on her chin and she quickly covered it with some concealer. She chucked on her usual make-up and pulled her hair up into a tight ponytail trying to get the curls to lay as flat as possible. Rushing past Billie she slipped on her heels and grabbed her bag but Billie stopped her at the door.

'Why are you leaving now?' She frowned, 'You haven't even had breakfast yet.'

'N-no time, I need to see check something.'

The door slammed shut behind her and Billie sighed, aggressively buttering her toast. 'No worries Ally,' she said, 'except for the fact that you yell in your damn sleep.'

* * *

'C-Cookie?' Allison knocked on the door frame.

He looked up in surprise and smiled, 'Come on in Ally, what's up?'

She hesitated for a moment before making sure the door closed behind her and sat in the chair he offered. His eyes flicked between her and the door before closing his laptop and giving her his full attention.

'Is everything all right?'

She nodded and then shook her head. 'C-Cookie I've figured out what's wr-rong with the Triceratops', I-it's the DNA s-substitution.'

What was happening, Ally explained, was that when InGen had designed the Triceratops' genome they'd found that they needed to supplement missing areas to aid the skin thickness, otherwise their skin was too thin. InGen had been using elephant DNA to supplement this. The problem was that someone had altered the supplement DNA and infected one of the amino acids with a specialised disease that would affect only a localised area of the lung. It worked like a Trojan horse, lying dormant for no particular amount of time before it became active and started destroying lung tissue.

'Every Triceratops that's been hatched since the DNA was altered will eventually be affected,' Ally finished, 'there's no preventing that but what we need to do now is fix the code.'

Ally could not have told you what Cookie's expression was. Wonder? Horror? The face of a man who was one hundred percent done? He breathed in like he was about to blow down a house and let it out in one long low whistle.

'Okay,' he began, 'okay, so what should we do? You said it's on the… thirty-eighth codon?' Ally nodded. 'Is it possible to extract this disease?'

'I- maybe, I'm not sure, it's very possible that doing so could damage the bonds of the acid itself. But Cookie, even if we can remove it there could be more lying dormant that I haven't found yet, I'm lucky I found this one so early on in the code and I came to you straight away so…'

Ally hesitated, refusing to look Cookie in the eye.

'So?' He prompted gently.

'Cookie,' she clenched her fists, 'someone purposefully altered this code, someone in these labs and if we don't find out who then what's to say that when the code is "fixed" or a new one's made, that they won't just slip it in again?

He frowned, 'Not to mention that Masrani won't let any of us switch over to fix this. The board is putting a huge amount of pressure on this Mosasaurus project.

'And,' he sighed, 'the other problem is that they started the herd with eleven Trikes, they didn't add more until three years ago which is, now that I think about it, the clutches that have all been dying off.'

He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, 'twenty-eight minus eleven is seventeen so there should be seventeen Trikes affected by this.'

'Fifteen have died so far, that means there should be two left.' Ally broke in, 'if we get the last two Trikes into surgery right now we might be able to fix it.'

'And the two that recently hatched!' Cookie exclaimed, 'now that we know what's happening we should be able to prevent it.'

Ally scraped her chair back and ran to the door. 'You tell Wu, I'll tell Yvaine and Nathan to get the Trikes into surgery.'

He managed to catch the door before it closed behind her and began running towards Wu's office, with a slide he caught the door frame and leaned nonchalantly against it pretending to study his fingernails.

'Drop the act, you're obviously out of breath,' Wu's voice was bored as he didn't even both looking up from his laptop. 'What's got you excited now?'

'Guess which twenty-four year old genius just solved our Trike problem?

That got his attention, Wu's head jerked up and he stared at Cookie. 'She what?' He said slowly.

'She solved it. That "stupid little girl" solved it. Something you and your entire hand picked labs hadn't in months.'

Wu scowled and leaned back in his chair before smoothing his face. 'My lab and I have been focused on the Mosasaurus project, something the board decided was of far more import than a few Triceratops'.

Cookie curled his lip at the man, 'over half of the Triceratops' herd has been decimated, Wu. And from the looks of it you'd better start re-evaluating your hand-picked team.'

'What are you talking about.' The bored voice was back but Cookie could hear the worry lurking underneath it.

'Masrani gave you full control over who you hire,' he laughed, 'he trusted that anyone you picked could be trusted, what's he going to think when he finds out _you hired a mole?'_

* * *

'So do you th-think they'll be okay?' Asked Ally. She and Nathan sat inside the Trike nursery watching the two little ones playing with a large beach ball.

'Looks that way,' Nathan grinned as one of them tripped over the other. 'They've healed up quickly and their bodies haven't rejected the tissue transplant so far.'

'And the other two? Diana and Walnut?' Walnut's dandy, she's just tired, Diana rejected the first set of tissue but she's been fine with the second so far.'

'I'm glad,' sighed Ally happily, and leant back on her hands.

'You look it,' he laughed, 'you don't look insane any more.'

'Yeah,' she shook her head ruefully, curls bopping from side to side. 'I'm actually sleeping again now. I was so worried about them.' She finished softly and Nathan watched her from the corner of his eye, a small smile tugging at his mouth.

They heard the door open behind them and Yvaine sat down next to Ally with a sigh.

'So…' she drawled, 'I suppose you want a thank you? Praise? A reward?' Ally looked at her in confusion and Yvaine's mouth twitched.

'I'm messing with you kid.' She turned to watch the Trike's grinning when they ran up to her and nudging the ball with her foot so they went back to playing.

As they watched them play Yvaine's hand shot out and ruffled Ally's hair, ignoring the girls squeak of surprise. 'You're a good kid.' Yvaine shrugged.

'Even for a Lab Rat?'

'Even for a Lab Rat.'

* * *

Authors note** I have used a LOT of artistic license with the "hidden disease on an amino acid thing" like I do year 12 biology and I'm like ehhhh this is so inaccurate but hey * shrugs *

*hackles are the hairs/feathers on the back of a mammals (including birds) neck that raise when they're angry/scared/warning/etc. And since dino's were actually feathered I'm taking another wee bit of artistic licence in saying they have hackles. Mostly due to an episode with raptors on a TV show called Primeval which I still adore to this day (anyone else know this show?)

*Exams are so close to being overrrrrrrrrrrrr


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